LEGAZPI CITY –– A briefcase left unattended beside an electric post triggered panic among residents living along a major thoroughfare in this city’s Old Albay District on Monday morning after it was suspected of containing a bomb, a police report said.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Alwind Gamboa, city police chief, said the briefcase was found in front of Calderon Building in Barangay Cruzada.
A responding police bomb squad unit, after verification with a K9 bomb-sniffing dog, immediately conducted the detonating procedure at 9:15 a.m.
A police explosive and ordnance team, following a search and recovery of the particles, found that the briefcase contained only several sets of spoon and fork utensils.
The investigation disclosed that the briefcase was left behind outside the gate at 1:10 a.m. by Paul Beltran, 25, a driver of Noel Andres Perdigon, Senior Vice President of Insular Life, who unloaded the luggage at the latter’s rented house that is used as a stockroom.
The Capt. Fermin Aquende Drive, formerly Washington Drive, is the main road several meters from the Legazpi Domestic Airport, a private Catholic elementary and secondary school, hotels, hospital, and subdivisions.
The bomb scare prompted police to set up barriers and deploy police crowd control that caused moderate traffic in the area.