Students and faculty at Allan Hancock College had a bit of a scare on Aug. 21 when the campus was evacuated due to an apparent bomb threat, according to the Santa Maria Police Department.
According to initial press releases issued by the SMPD, a suspicious package was reported on the median in the 800 block of South Bradley Road just before 10 a.m., near the administration building. The package was suspected to be a pressure cooker.
City and county agencies were deployed to handle the situation, including the bomb squad from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the SMPD, Santa Maria Fire Department, California Highway Patrol, Hancock College police, Caltrans, and the Santa Maria Streets Department, who assisted in the evacuation.
Upon further inspection, the package actually turned out to be an empty box that once held a pressure cooker, according to SMPD Sgt. Russ Mengel.
But it wasn’t simply a box. Apparently it had some modifications and police believe “unequivocally” that it was done intentionally, Mengel said. They’re not saying what modifications were made to the box because they are searching for the individual who might have placed it there, according to Mengel, who added that no arrests have been made yet.
With recent events like the Boston Marathon Bombing in April 2013, where two pressure cooker bombs killed three people and injured 264 others, and most recently in Lompoc, where a suspicious pressure cooker was discovered near the Walgreens on H Street on June 2, police didn’t want to leave anything up to chance.
“It exposed the college campus and Highway 101 to a potential risk had it been an actual explosive device,” Mengel said.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 3, 2015.