A suspicious package in northeast Atlanta on Sunday morning was found to be no threat, Atlanta police said.
SWAT units were called to the scene in the 1300 block of North Highland Avenue NE, Atlanta police spokesman Officer John Chafee said.
Authorities investigated the report of a package near a trash bin and “were able to determine that it that it contained miscellaneous items,” Chafee said.
Witness Kathy Kelly told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she called police Saturday afternoon about what she believes was the same suspicious package — a silver suitcase sitting next to the trash container in her office building’s parking lot in the 1300 block of North Highland.
The police spokesman said he was not aware of authorities responding to a suspicious package call in that area Saturday.
Kelly said an officer arrived, waved a thin, black wand over the suitcase, deemed it safe and left after about 20 minutes.
“It’s kind of disturbing,” she said. “If they thought there was no threat, why didn’t he open it or take it away?”
She is relieved it turned out to be nothing.
“That area is a high pedestrian traffic area,” she said. “What if (it) had been a bomb?
There has been a rash of suspicious package calls in Atlanta since Monday's Boston Marathon bombing. All of those packages turned out to be harmless.
Saturday morning, a package — which ended up being a black bag containing small boxes — shut down Interstate 85 south of the Cheshire Bridge exit for just over two hours, police said.
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