Suspicious Package Causes Traffic Jams
A two-mile stretch of California 33 was closed for about two hours Wednesday afternoon while the sheriff’s bomb squad retrieved a suspicious-looking package from the shoulder of the road, authorities said.
A bomb-retrieving robot detonated the small package, which was about the size of a doughnut box. It contained new brake shoes, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Mike Cooper said.
The box was viewed with suspicion because it had been tightly wrapped with silver duct tape and had a red rag sticking out of it, officers said. It was found about 2 p.m.
“The way it was wrapped, I believe it was left there intentionally,” Cooper said.
The box was found on the shoulder of the freeway’s northbound lanes at Crooked Palm Road, southeast of Foster Park.
The freeway closure caused a major traffic backup in both directions, but officers tried to alleviate the crunch by diverting vehicles onto Shell Road to the south and Canada Larga Road to the north.
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