(credit: Art Barron/CBS)
Posted on 03/25/2013 12:59:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — A reportedly suspicious item found on a Santa Monica bus turned out to be a fake device that was used in a security training exercise over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
LAPD officers were flagged down near Centinela Ave. and Culver Blvd. around 8:18 a.m. by the driver of a Big Blue Bus from Santa Monica after the unknown device was discovered, Lt. Marco Munoz told KNX 1070′s Ed Mertz.
“There were some red tubes with tape wrapped around it, and some other little items in there that gave the appearance that it could be a device,” Munoz said.
Police evacuated nearby businesses and called in the bomb squad before a city official advised officers of a weekend training exercise held by Santa Monica Transit in the same location.
During the exercise, fake devices were placed on buses to determine whether they would be detected by transit personnel, Munoz said.
“They apparently forgot to remove at least a couple of those devices,” he added. A similar incident was reported at La Brea and Pico earlier Monday, according to Munoz.
The closure backed up traffic along Centinela and Culver during morning rush hour before the scene was cleared around 10:00 a.m.
Santa Monica Police Sgt. Rick Lewis told CBS2′s Art Barron he was “angered” that no law enforcement agency was notified about the exercise held on Saturday. A total of four packages were used in the exercise, Barron reported.
There was no immediate comment from Big Blue Bus officials on the training exercise.
Someone is testing SM transit security response.
Cut the red wire.
Geez!
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