Crime & Safety
2nd Suspicious Package in Berkeley Rattles Cal Campus, No Danger
The second of two suspicious packages reported in Berkeley Monday led to shelter or evacuate advisories for two major UC Berkeley buildings and closed the busy Telegraph/Bancroft intersection. The campus bomb squad found it was a harmless suitcase.
While Berkeley police sealed off part of downtown to investigate a suspicious package at a restaurant Monday afternoon, UC Berkeley police closed off part of busy Bancroft Way because of another suspicious object next to campus.
Both turned out to be harmless.
Campus police received a call at 2:44 p.m of a suspicious object in front of Whelan's Smoke Shop at 2486 Bancroft near Telegraph Avenue, said Police Sgt. Nicole Sanchez.
The UC Berkeley Police bomb squad was summoned, the area was closed to traffic and pedestrians, and advisories to shelter in place or evacuate were issued for Sproul Hall, the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union and the construction site on lower Sproul Plaza, Sanchez said.
The scene was cleared at 4:14 p.m. when officers determined that the object turned out to be a harmless, soft black suitcase on rollers, Sanchez said. "It wasn't dangerous."
The other suspicious package that sealed off part of Shattuck Avenue for nearly four hours and kept the Berkeley Police Department bomb squad busy this afternoon turned out to be coffee. It had arrived in the mail at La Note restaurant. For more information, see Suspicious Package That Closed Part of Berkeley Was Coffee.
Published Oct. 28, 2013, 5:15 p.m.; updated Oct. 29, 1:19 a.m.
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