210 Freeway Reopened In Pasadena After Removal Of Suspicious Item At Gold Line Station
PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — Both sides of the 210 Freeway were briefly shut down Wednesday morning as the sheriff's bomb squad investigated a suspicious item at the Gold Line's Lake Avenue station in Pasadena.
The freeway and Metro station were shut down shortly after 9 a.m. and then reopened shortly before 11 a.m. after the suspicious item had been removed.
Authorities did not immediately say what the suspicious item was, although it appeared to be an article of clothing.
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The discovery of the suspicious item was phoned in at 8:23 a.m., said sheriff's Transit Policing Division Lt. Marc Lucio. Deputies responded to the location and evacuated the station, Lucio said.
"It was determined that the suspicious package contained some kind of device," Lucio said. "We didn't know if it was active or inactive so the bomb squad was called out to handle it."
The investigation backed up traffic for miles and caused delays for Gold Line commuters.
The incident comes two days after a bogus tip about a possible "explosive device" that would be detonated Tuesday at the Red Line station on Lankershim Boulevard across from Universal Studios was phoned into authorities.
That tip, made from a pay phone reportedly used to communicate bogus threats in the past, was relayed to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force on Monday morning, authorities said.
Authorities learned about the threat from someone in Australia who called a public safety line and provided information about the alleged plot, according to Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Horace Frank, assistant commanding officer of the department's Counterterrorism Bureau.
Commuters who rely on Metro rail lines were met with heavy security Tuesday as local and federal authorities responded to the tip. The Universal City Station was fortified with barricades and a throng of sheriff's deputies and police officers wielding high-powered weapons.
Investigators eventually found no evidence to corroborate the warning of a possible bomb attack, the FBI announced Tuesday night.
There is no word yet on whether authorities believe this incident is related to the earlier threat against the Red Line.
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