Easton Fire Department Captain Henry Hennings said emergency personnel received a call from another resident in the building around 5:30 p.m. about a bag left between the outer and inner door of the building.
"It is a bag of unknown origin," Hennings said. "That's why we're treating it as suspicious."
Neighbors and local residents watch from across the street. |
anyway, he said.
The evacuation was a major inconvenience to at least one resident.
Though he said he understood the importance of being safe rather than sorry, being forced out of his home for hours made Matthew Koenig, who works the night shift at an area cold storage facility, miss work.
"Being a former Marine and having this happen, it's like, what the hell did I get out for?" he said. "I was having a nice peaceful sleep too...I was sleeping and all of a sudden my wife says, 'there's someone outside saying we're being evacuated.' This is just a pain."
A member of the Bethlehem Fire Department Bomb Squad retrieves the parcel. |
Peering inside, authorities found the parcel contained personal items, and nothing dangerous or suspicious.
Hennings said the drawstring nylon bag held a notebook, deodorant, a sweatshirt, and an overdue library book.
Police swept the property, including a shed and a garage, but found nothing else out of the ordinary, he added.
"As far as we know, someone could have dropped off the bag not realizing the tenant was not there any more," Hennings speculated.
Easton Police Lt. Sam Lobb inspects the contents of the bag, which was brought out in a milk crate. |
This is the second bomb scare in the City of Easton in as many weeks.
a number of surrounding roads were closed for about three hours after a black handbag was tossed from a vehicle near the corner of Seventh and Northampton streets, alarming a witness who thought the bag might contain a bomb. In that case, it was found that a woman had discarded the bag as litter shortly after purchasing a new one.
More than 20 emergency personnel, including members of the Lehigh County Hazardous Materials and Emergency Management Special Operations teams, responded to the incident.
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