Strange items found in van

BOISE – Three suspicious objects found Monday in a government van at the Idaho National Guard base closed down access through the main gate into the installation for six hours.

The objects were used for recent security training at Gowen Field in preparation for the Guard’s impending 116th Cavalry Brigade mobilization to Iraq. A government van being driven through the main gate into Gowen Field was stopped by security guards in a random search at about 9:30 a.m. They spotted several strange objects inside and isolated the vehicle, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tim Marsano said.

“One was a can of Ajax cleaner with a battery hooked to it,” Marsano said. “Another was a three-ring binder with the message, ‘Boom!! You’re KIA,’ or ‘Killed in Action.’ The third was a sandbag with some wires connected to it.

“The reason they were in the van in the first place was to train how to handle suspicious objects, all in preparation for the deployment,” Marsano said. “They should have been taken out of the van, but were inadvertently left in.”

He said the employees driving the van were unaware the objects were even there. A city bomb squad responded and did away with the objects, “rendering them safe,” Marsano said.

“It caused quite an uproar,” he said. “But our soldiers and security people did exactly what they were supposed to do. If you view this as a training event, it delivered a lot of information.”

Access to the base was re-established six hours later.