This rash of suspicious package reports that have kept the Atlanta police bomb squad scrambling in the wake of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing continued Friday, and like the reports before it, Friday’s first suspicious package turned out to be totally harmless.
Around 11:30 a.m. Friday, another suspicious package — the second of the morning — was reported at the Georgia 400 Toll Plaza. State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Chata Spikes said all southbound lanes of the tollway remained shut down at 11:45. MARTA train service between the Lindbergh and North Springs stations was also disrupted.
The all-clear was sounded and Ga. 400 reopened about 12:15 p.m. There was no immediate word on what was inside that package.
The contents of this week’s other suspicious packages, which have snarled traffic wherever they were reported, have ranged from magazines to stuffed animals to nothing but air.
The busy northwest Atlanta intersection of Howell Mill and Collier roads was shut down for about two hours during Friday’s morning commute while authorities investigated a suspicious package that was determined to contain toy stuffed animals.
According to Atlanta police dispatchers, a black backpack was found about 8:15 a.m. near swings at Ellsworth Park.
Both Howell Mill and Collier roads were blocked to traffic until about 10:15, when the bomb squad opened the backpack and found stuffed toys inside.
Shelley Sweeney, who lives in the nearby Springlake neighborhood, was trying to take her dog to Springlake Park off Collier Road when she encountered the road closure.
“We can’t get there,” Sweeney told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“It’s very disconcerting, for obvious reasons,” Sweeney said. “I’m just hoping it’s resolved quickly and turns out to be nothing.”
Atlanta police and firefighters, sometimes bolstered by state and federal authorities, have treated all of this week’s suspicious package reports seriously, even though, like Friday morning’s scare, none of those packages turned out to contain anything threatening.
Thursday evening, the intersection of Peachtree and 4th streets was blocked off after someone noticed a computer bag left on top of a garbage can. The Atlanta police bomb squad was called to the scene, and determined that the bag was empty.
A day earlier, the bomb squad blew up an unmarked cardboard box that a deliveryman had left inside the Wells Fargo Bank on Roswell Road at West Wieuca Road. The box contained Buckhead guidebook magazines.
On Tuesday, a police SWAT team was called to the Turner Field area after ball park security officers found what appeared to be a suspicious electronic device under a garbage can on the sidewalk near the entry gates. That device also turned out to be harmless.
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