Monday, March 17, 2008

"Bomb Scare Forces Alamo Plaza Evacuation"

It's not too often that the area in front of the Alamo is devoid of people during the middle of the day, but a bomb scare will do it.

From KSAT-12:

SAN ANTONIO -- A bomb scare prompted police to evacuate Alamo Plaza briefly Monday afternoon, but the suspicious backpack turned out to be nothing dangerous.

After evacuating the plaza and taking other precautions, members of the SAPD Bomb Squad x-rayed the package that showed no explosive materials, but decided to detonate the package to be safe.

Apparently, the package contained just books and clothes. Could be there's a student somewhere in this town that must start over now.

5 comments:

Kels said...

Man am I ever glad that during my semesters at UTSA's downtown campus I didn't leave my bag sitting anywhere off campus! ;-) This reminds me of the thing in downtown Austin, TX with all the dead birds everywhere.

Dave said...

I wouldn't be surprised to find out some photographer hadn't used this as a ploy to clear the area for some clean shots of the Alamo.

Albatross said...

I remember that bird thing in Austin. That was pretty creepy.

As for the photographer angle -- it is pretty hard to get a picture of the Alamo without some kind of tourist in the foreground.

Anonymous said...

I was right there when it happened. First off, it wasn't a backpack. It was a cardboard box taped shut entirely with blue tape. On top of the box was a cell phone, also taped to the box...that for some reason every story I've read on this keeps forgetting to mention. Also considering it was left right outside the visitor center, I think the SAPD took the right precautions to ensure the safety of everyone there. We were literally locked inside the Alamo for well over an hour, and as aggrivating as it was to know it was nothing more than some old phone books and trash (they left the package when they were done...strange), it was also a big relief to know that they would do their best to protect us in any situation. Whoever pulled this off is surely laughing about it somewhere, but it was definitely NOT funny.

Albatross said...

This is the first I have heard about a cell phone taped to the package. If that's the case, then I don't blame the authorities for being cautious.