Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Suspected car bomb turns out to be tracking device

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 13:53:29 -0500

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Friday

January 24, 2003

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Date Posted:

January 18, 2003

False Alarm

Suspected car bomb turns out to be tracking device

A robot from the Shaw Air Force Base bomb squad approaches a Chevrolet Suburban in order to get a closer look at the truck Friday afternoon. The wire hanging below the Suburban was connected to a tracking device believed to be a bomb.

This device was believed to be a bomb, but turned out to be a tracking device.

By BRADEN BUNCH
Item Staff Writer

A device that appeared to be a bomb on a vehicle parked outside Simpson’s Hardware and Sports on Wesmark Boulevard kept local and state authorities busy for nearly four hours Friday before the object was found to be a tracking system placed on the car by the driver’s wife.

Sumter Police Chief Patty Patterson said police were called at 3:23 p.m. when a sales representative for Simpson’s Sales Co., who was delivering an order of Browning firearms, spotted a suspicious package on the undercarriage of his Chevrolet Suburban as he came out of the store.

After a preliminary inspection indicated to authorities that the device could be an explosive, surrounding businesses were ordered closed and authorities evacuated the area within a mile of the vehicle.

Described as a “very professional-looking device,” the object was thought to be several sticks of dynamite with a remote detonation transmitter attached. The entire device, authorities said, was attached to the vehicle with duct tape.

Hours later, Patterson said, authorities learned from a call by the Florence man’s wife that she had placed the tracking device on the car so she could keep tabs on her husband.

Soon after the initial 911 call, local police were joined by several dozen safety workers from Shaw Air Force Base, the State Law Enforcement Division, Sumter Fire Department, Sumter County Emergency Medical Services and the Sumter County Department of Public Safety.

Scare empties businesses

By LUKE REYNOLDS
Item Staff Writer

A bomb scare shut down businesses on Wesmark Boulevard for nearly four hours Friday and stirred anxious thoughts among nearby patrons.

“This is pretty scary,” a harried 37-year-old Mary Hancock said as she drove her car out of the parking lot beside Simpson’s Hardware and Sports.

Read the story

Wesmark Boulevard was shut down from Broad Street to Alice Drive and traffic was temporarily rerouted along Broad Street into the Sumter Mall parking lot. After determining there was no danger to vehicles on Broad Street, authorities reopened the road.

Patterson, who was attending an event at Shaw, arrived shortly afterward and a command center was set up across the street from Simpson’s in the Alltel parking lot.

At 5:53 p.m., with both the Shaw Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit and the SLED bomb squad in place, authorities detonated the apparent transmitter of the device using a RONS (Remote Ordnance Neutralization System), a remote-controlled robot equipped with cameras and detonation devices.

Fearing a large explosion, all public safety workers at the scene were ordered to take cover before the detonation.

Authorities had been working on this for about an hour when the call came in that the package was a tracking device.

Despite the nearly four hours spent on the call, Patterson said both the man reporting the bomb and all the officers responding to the scene acted appropriately.

“We can’t stress enough that it appeared to look like a bomb, both to local officers and to the bomb squads,” Patterson said.

The police chief also stressed the evacuation and road closures were appropriate measures.

“Especially in these times, it’s important to act with diligence,” she said.

Sumter Writer Braden Bunch can be called at 803-774-1222 or e-mailed at [email-masked].

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