Suspicious items in lot prompt bank evacuation

LACEY, Wash. – A duffel bag and a backpack left in the parking lot of the Frontier Bank in Lacey, Wash., prompted police to evacuate the bank and close part of Marvin Road for nearly three hours.

State Patrol bomb technician Cliff Pratt says the bags looked suspicious at first, with wires and pieces of a cell phone visible, but X-rays showed they contained no explosives.

He says the bags contained clothes and playing cards, and he thinks they were just dumped.

Lacey police Lt. Jim Mack told the Olympian newspaper that police are trying to identify the man and woman who left the items Wednesday.

In Woodburn, Ore., last December, two police officers were killed and a third was badly injured when police moved a bomb inside a different bank to examine the device. Police thought that was a hoax.