A suspicious duffel bag found outside the Davis police station on Tuesday had decidedly unsuspicious contents: binders, some clothing and personal hygiene products such as toothpaste and shampoo.
But officers didn’t know that when they discovered it, the uncertainty resulting in a nearly two-hour shutdown of Fifth Street while Yolo County Bomb Squad technicians tested the bag for a possible harmful device.
“We’ve got to treat all of these incidents seriously,” said Lt. Ton Phan, whose agency was targeted less than two months ago by someone who placed an improvised incendiary device outside the station’s north gate.
Tuesday’s incident began at about 9:45 a.m. when a police employee conducting business in front of the station spotted the blue nylon duffel bag resting against the wall outside the department’s community meeting room.
Police evacuated the building’s lobby, front offices and records division and summoned the Bomb Squad. Moments later, they also shut down Fifth Street between Cantrill Drive and Peña Drive as a further precaution.
Bomb Squad technicians deployed a robot to X-ray the bag and move it around once the contents were determined not to be volatile.
“When nothing happened, our officers went in and opened up the bag,” Phan said. Police are looking over the contents to determine whether they can identify the bag’s owner.
“At this time, there’s no crime that we’re looking into,” Phan said, noting that the bag could have been forgotten accidentally or stolen from the owner, then discarded. “We just want to know why that package was left behind.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department at 530-747-5400.
Phan said police also continue to investigate the June 29 incident involving the incendiary device but have not been able to develop any solid leads regarding the suspect.
However, the incident did reveal shortcomings in the department’s exterior security cameras — which captured only low-quality images of the device being planted outside the gate — and police are in the process of seeking upgraded equipment, Phan said.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
