When people live in terror the terrorists have won

Wausau Daily Herald

WITTENBERG -- What Rachel Rasmussen thought was an explosive situation ended without a bang once the Army rolled into town. Rasmussen, who recently purchased a new home in Wittenberg, thought she had found a land mine in her backyard but discovered Wednesday that it actually was an old base for a large umbrella.

"It looked very suspicious," Rasmussen said, adding that it was half-buried behind trees and a large rock. "Everyone else I showed the picture to thought it was a land mine." Photographs of the object apparently were convincing enough that Fort McCoy dispatched a bomb squad to investigate. But early Wednesday afternoon, the bomb squad determined it was not a land mine or anything else dangerous. The Fort McCoy team refused to comment, and the two responding Shawano County Sheriff's Department officers were unavailable for comment.

The false alarm wasn't a new experience for the bomb specialists, said Linda Fournier, Fort McCoy's public affairs officer. The specialists respond to calls in a seven-state area, but Fournier said she did not know how many of those are false alarms.

It was a first for the Shawano County Sheriff's Department, however. Lt. George Lenzner said the department sometimes receives calls regarding old artillery shells, but never for land mines.
"It's kind of a relief (that it wasn't a land mine)," he said. "Otherwise, we would have had to find a place to detonate it."

Rasmussen's adventure began when she and her boyfriend were working in the yard Monday at her new home at W17236 Witt-Birn Townline Road. They found what they thought might be a land mine, and they called police the next day.

Lt. Staber Cook snapped some pictures and sent them to the Brown County bomb squad. Fort McCoy officials received the pictures that night and told Shawano County authorities Wednesday morning that it was a land mine and they were sending a team to handle the situation.
Rasmussen said the "freaky" experience will be a funny story she won't soon forget.
"I'm sure I'll be laughing about this thing for years," she said.





Jim Schultz
redding.com

Bomb squad and other public safety personnel were breathing a sigh of relief Thursday night after determining that a suspicious, old-fashioned, medicine-type bottle containing a clear liquid that was left outside a Redding business was not an explosive device.

Suspicious liquid found downtown is not explosive. Still, the contents had not been identified as of Thursday evening and a hazardous materials team collected the bottle to test the liquid today to determine whether it was dangerous.

A passerby reported a suspicious object on South Street between California and Market streets around 2:10 p.m. Thursday. The parking lot was roped off, and a Shasta County sheriff's bomb squad member checked the bottle and recommended that the squad be called to investigate.
Police later cordoned off a portion of South Street, and it was determined around 6:45 p.m. that the object was not explosive.

Lt. Jerry Shearman of the Shasta County Sheriff's Department said the bomb squad, using a portable X-ray device, ruled out a possible bomb after it did not discover wires, metal or a triggering device in the bottle. Still, its contents were a mystery.

The large public safety and media presence at the scene startled those doing business in the area, catching the attention of hair stylist Robin Young and her customers inside the Colours Hair Salon.
"I've been down here for four or five bank robberies and that's what I thought it was at first," said Young, 42, of Shasta Lake.

"Our responsibility is to make sure the public is safe," Lauderdale said. "That's what we're here for."






AFX News Limited

LONDON (AFX) - A federal press centre near the White House housing several of President George W Bush's press aides was evacuated for about a half an hour this morning because of a bomb scare, according to US media reports.

The alarm was raised after a car was checked by sniffer dogs, but Secret Service spokeswoman Kim Bruce said nothing amiss was found in the vehicle, which was driven by a State Department contractor and had been stopped at the entrance to the White House complex, on further inspection, Fox TV reported.

The White House Conference Center on Jackson Place, which was emptied, is serving as the temporary offices of several of Bush's press aides as well as reporters covering the president, the US TV news channel said.





South Bend, Indiana

A bomb scare startled a number of St. Joseph County workers as police checked out suspicious packages. South Bend Police received a call early Friday morning that someone left two packages at the St. Joseph County Jail.

The bomb squad closed down Sample street for safety while they inspected the area.
Police say it was a false alarm. County workers tell us it was just a space heater and phone.
In any event, officers had the situation under control in a couple hours.

South Bend Police Captain Phil Trent says, "We protect lives first, we protect property secondarily and if we can leave a scene with no one hurt and no property damaged or destroyed then that's a success."

Police say it's best to call emergency and leave the area immediately, if you find anything suspicious.