Package shuts 241 toll road 2 hours

A suspicious package shut down traffic along the 241 toll road for more than two hours Wednesday afternoon before the object was finally removed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad.

The trouble began about 3 p.m. when a passerby told authorities that a box had been placed next to an emergency call box on the tollway near the 91 Freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP officers went to the scene and called in the sheriff’s bomb squad after finding that the box was labeled “explosive device,” authorities said. Bomb experts sent in a robot to pick up the package and drop it into a protective case.

The ramp for the westbound 91 Freeway was shut down, snarling traffic on the tollway for about five miles before the road was reopened at 5:30 p.m.

An Orange County sheriff’s spokesperson said the box contained an artillery simulator -- a type of pyrotechnic that causes a large flash, a boom and a cloud of smoke when ignited.

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-- Joel Rubin