How internet hysteria turned smoke-spouting ‘pyrotechnic device’ at Pasadena Cheesecake Factory into an imaginary ‘bomb’

Pasadena >> A man in all black clothing walked into a Cheesecake Factory on Thursday evening and threw a ball-shaped object that popped loudly and created a cloud of smoke.

The incident caused a scare and an evacuation, but resulted in no injuries or property damage, according to officials. The restaurant reopened Friday morning on time and welcomed customers like any other day.

Overnight, the story went national and became a top trend on Google. The “homemade pyrotechnic device” described by police turned into an explosive, then a bomb and was even referred to as an IED, or improvised explosive device, on Twitter.

“Man Throws Homemade Bomb into Pasadena Cheesecake Factory,” read Time magazine’s headline Friday afternoon.

“Bearded, ‘Middle Eastern’ Terrorist Hurls BOMB into Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena, California,” wrote blogger Pamela Geller to her 134,000 followers on Twitter.

But few locals were as concerned. The “bomb” did little to deter people from heading to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Across the street, people at a cafe joked and speculated while waiting for their coffee.

Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek said the police department is taking the matter seriously, but officials meeting Friday morning for a leadership council at City Hall didn’t discuss the incident at all. The device was “more related to a firecracker than a bomb,” he said.

“The atmosphere is that everything gets magnified to the extent that it takes on a life of its own — and the media contributes to that,” Tornek said. “It takes on a life of its own because of the tension and the fear and the fact that all of this stuff is reported instantly.”

Heather Rosoff is a research professor at USC’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. She said the reaction to the Cheesecake Factory explosion is a phenomenon called social amplification.

People’s fears about the state of the world, combined with the media’s phrasing of articles about the incident, made it more likely people would treat the device like an act of terrorism. Two decades ago, they may have thought of it more as a prank.

But now they’re flooded with stories about bans on Muslims, attacks in other countries, nuclear threats and uneasy relationships with other world powers, Rosoff said.

“You really have to think about how the messages are tailored,” she said. “People are anxious, people are jittery. We are in very uncertain times.”

People read “explosive,” learned the Pasadena police notified federal authorities, and read the suspect described as Middle Eastern or Hispanic and bearded. Their emotional responses were amplified and it creates an unintentional game of “telephone,” Rosoff said.

“Their words kind of change to make it more dramatic,” she said.

The fact that people returned to Cheesecake Factory the next day suggested the fear seen on social media wasn’t necessarily true locally.

“People are showing resilience,” she said.

At Cheesecake Factory, General Manager Frank Valenzuela said his employees were in good spirits and returned to work without any issues. He did not think the incident would affect business, though he did say he believed the media was sensationalizing what happened.

“Unfortunately, this is the world we live in,” he said.

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