The second floor of a downtown building was briefly evacuated Friday morning after a suspicious package was discovered in an outside trash can, authorities said.
The all-clear was given about 11:10 a.m. after police confirmed they found a beeping security device cut off a pair of women’s shoes, according to Georgia State Patrol Lt. Jim Wicker.
The device was found outside 2 Peachtree Street, a 44-story skyscraper that houses the Department of Public Health.
Wicker said an employee heard the beeping sound and notified security about 9:30 a.m. After the scene was secured, a K-9 unit performed a secondary sweep of the area and the GBI bomb squad was called in, Wicker told AJC.com.
A GBI robot was used to check the trash can and find the device.
“We had a report from an employee who had received some shoes in the mail that came with a store security tag on them,” Wicker said. “She cut it off, it began beeping and she threw it away in the trash can.”
Authorities were on the scene for more than an hour.
Hundreds of people were forced to stand outside the state office building during the evacuation, and Marietta Street had to be shut down.
