SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 30, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake police and explosives experts were examining a suspicious package near SugarHouse BBQ in Salt Lake City Friday evening.
The bomb squad used a robot to check out what appeared to be a slow cooker or pressure cooker that was leaning against a pillar, according to Salt Lake City Police Department Lt. Robin Heiden.
The robot disrupted the package and Salt Lake City police tweeted at 8:30 p.m. that the package appeared to contain no explosives. The area of 2100 South was then reopened after being closed to all traffic earlier in the evening.
Police were called by employees of the restaurant at about 4:45 p.m., Lt. Heiden told reporters. She said the employees told police they had not placed the package there and no one from inside the restaurant claimed it.
Heiden said the package looked suspicious enough that “we called out our HDU (hazardous device unit) to look at it.” At 7:15 p.m. Friday, they were still in the first stages of examining the item.
“It’s a very methodical process,” Heiden said, “and we have to take it step by step.”
Heiden noted that the area is generally extremely busy on a Friday evening, and closing it off was causing quite a traffic jam, but it was necessary for the safety of the public.
