California Teen Speaks After At-Home Science Lab Leads To FBI Hazmat Investigation

A California teen is speaking out after his at-home science lab started an FBI hazmat investigation. This isn't just your average teens being teens story--he's impressive!

As a teen, I know I didn't have a science lab at my place or anything close to it. Nothing I was doing could have sparked an FBI hazmat investigation. According to ABC7, 17-year-old Amalvin Fritz is gifted when it comes to science and he participates in California's GATE program for gifted and high-achieving students and even skipped high school. He reportedly started his first year of college at 14 and is now close to earning his degree from UC Irvine at only 17! See a video report shared by ABC7 on YouTube below.

ABC7 says Fritz created a lab in his family's garage and conducts experiments and is studying reactions that are common in the medical field especially when it comes to developing cures for diseases. He features some of his work on his YouTube page.

He says this investigation is a big misunderstanding. He tells ABC7, "I believe they had a little bit of a concern as this is not something that you usually see inside a home, because not a lot of people are very passionate about science, and that's something I hope to change."

Sounds like the investigation was started after a maintenance worker who was responding to a leak inside Fritz's family home saw the lab and notified the landlord who called authorities. Can't blame him and call him a rat, he might have thought it was a dangerous meth operation or something.

Fritz and his family had to stay in a hotel for a week while the investigation happened and crews were in the home wearing hazmat suits. Of course, Fritz isn't the first one to go through this. According to ABC7, a Google employee reached out saying something similar happened to them growing up..

Read more from ABC7 here.