August 30, 2010 in City, Idaho

Suspicious case near Post St. Bridge held camcorder

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Dan Pelle photo

A robot from the Spokane Explosive Disposal Unit empties the contents of a black case in a lot off Monroe Street on Monday, Aug. 30, 2010. The case, found on the Post Street Bridge and moved to a safe spot, contained a video camera.
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A suspicious briefcase found at the north end of the Post Street Bridge in Spokane this morning contained an old camcorder.

The bridge in Spokane was reopened at 10:40 a.m. after being closed when the case was discovered on the sidewalk.

The Spokane law enforcement explosives team responded to the incident, and removed the case, taking it to a vacant lot north of the Monroe Street Bridge.

There, the team opened the briefcase and discovered what the police are describing as an old-fashioned camcorder.

The briefcase was reported about 8 a.m. and the bridge closed a short time later.

Today’s incident follows the discovery of another suspicious briefcase near the Kootenai County Fairgrounds on Friday evening.

That briefcase contained some kind of explosive device, and was reported by passers-by who spotted it while they were heading to the North Idaho Fair, Coeur d’Alene police said. The case had the words “Warning do not touch” and “Boom” written on it in black ink. It was left in a grassy area near the sidewalk on Second Street.

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  bdr on August 30 at 12:23 p.m.

  I suppose a bomb robot was called and 35 officers needed to close the streets. har har har.

  that goes along with the ridiculous packing power incident,
  map tube incident, countless misplaced suitcase incidents.

  whats next packing peanuts called bombs?

  come on folks we live in cow town USA…..the only bombs in this town are hanging on Racists cars and laying in your front lawn gratis of your neighbors dog.

• 

  Montauban on August 30 at 4:07 p.m.

  When I remember (which was a long, long time ago) as kids, if we found anything, especially a briefcase or whatever, it was like finding gold at the end of Finnian’s Rainbow!

  We would run home, excited as hell and open it. Of course, back in the day, we knew nothing of “bombs”, “IED’s”, “devices”, or anything like that, only to hear about WW-II issues and what Pakistan did to India, Korea’s Communists and etc, etc.

  But I have to agree with ‘bdr’, above, that nowadays everybody is so freaked by this “terrorist society” we live in, we are afraid of the southern borders being influxed by thousands of unwanted Mexicans and South Americans every day (unwanted in their own countries) - and believe this…insurgents are coming from the Mid Eastern countries, flying to Mexico, and Colombia (for instance) and filtering through with the rest of ‘em into the US. So what are we expected to do when we find a curiosity on the street someplace?

  But, ‘bdr’…”Cow Town USA”? I stayed in Spokane for two months (in June and August of 2001) and did not find it a “cow town”. The people in Spokane were nice, cordial, helpful, very “with-it”, and would do anything for a newcomer. But racists are everywhere, as you said, as is dog poo!

• 

  westerly on August 30 at 4:38 p.m.

  Paranoia…. gads Spokane is full of fake bomb reports..what gives, kissing cousins of North Idaho? A lunch sack at riverside on the sidewalk shoudl evacuate down town I guess….more money to babysit these trivial things…think we need more bomb squad members..another 1 mil in salaries should do it..”SpookyHollow”..that’s Spokane’s new name all over the stare…. we are looked down upon……not envied..

• 

  Montauban on August 30 at 5:03 p.m.

  Okay, ‘westerly’, let’s talk about who the “Headless Horseman” will be?

  “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” or in this case, “Spooky Hollow”…is a short story written in the early 2000’s (2010 to be exact) by an American Author who lives in Spokane, Washington near the library west of town. The story is about a Spokane schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, who wants to marry a pretty farm girl in the “Cow Town” of “Spooky Hollow”.

  One night while he is walking near the Convention Center, he meets a terrifying ghost called the “Headless Horseman”, who then chases Ichabod through the woods of “Spooky Hollow”, all the way into Idaho someplace. Crane disappears and is never seen or heard from again!

  But…Ichabod Crane leaves a briefcase on the sidewalk which causes quite a stir with the locals as he was being chased away! The Washington National Guard was called, the US Army Demolition Team was called, The United States Air Force was called for “top cover”, and all local SWAT-action teams were called to find out what was in the briefcase. It turned out to be test papers from Ichabod’s third-grade class, as the robot-bomb device was sent in to investigate!

  Some people are spooked by this and thinks that Crane has been carried off by the ghost, but others really know that the “Headless Horseman” was really another man who really wanted to marry the local farm girl in the cow town, himself!

  So, as the current legend goes, whenever the “Headless Horseman” rides through “Spooky Hollow” every night in the mist settling in the valley, racists riding in cars are scaring the dogs enough so they run wild and leave their “calling cards” all over neighbor’s lawns to enhance the pure valley aroma of the cow town itself. The policemen never could catch the “Headless Horseman” in “Spooky Hollow”. Why, nobody knows!

• 

  Spokane_Citizen on August 30 at 5:31 p.m.

  The Spokane Police department’s response was entirely appropriate. Had it been indeed a bomb, and citizens injured or killed, (and there have been actual bombing incidents at City Hall, Planned Parenthood, and now recently in Idaho), you’d all have been screaming that SPD foolishly ignored the potential threat. But I guess there’s virtually no possibility of ever pleasing cretins.