Oakland Police Detonate Suspicious Package
OAKLAND (CBS SF) - Police blocked off several streets in downtown Oakland for about four hours on Thursday after a suspicious device was found at a Salvation Army facility.
The device found near 7th and Franklin streets appeared to have been a bomb hoax, police said.
The Salvation Army building on Webster Street at 7th was evacuated after the device was found nearby around 9:30 a.m, said Officer Johnna Watson, spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department.
Watson said the device found inside "some type of cooler" in a loading dock area had components that included wires, duct tape and foam.
"That obviously causes concern for us," Watson said.
Several other buildings in the area were subsequently evacuated as a precaution.
Police also blocked access to Broadway, Webster, 6th, 7th and 8th street so the Alameda County Sheriff's Office bomb squad could investigate the device.
Police detonated the device at 11:30 a.m. and determined that was not a real bomb. Authorities started to allow workers back into the evacuated buildings around 12 p.m.
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