By CHRIS JACKETT
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – Value shoppers had a little scare Monday afternoon.
A metal item believed to be a bomb was discovered by shoppers just after 4 p.m. in a shopping cart left in the parking lot at Save-A-Lot, 3901 Fort St.
Shoppers and residents were kept at a distance from the cart as Wyandotte officers and the Michigan State Police bomb squad responded to the scene.
“We just kept people clear of the area. We didn’t evacuate the store at all,” Police Chief Daniel Grant said. “It just turned out to be a brass casing that looked like a military mortar.”
The precautions to make sure the casing wasn’t a bomb and then remove it from the area lasted about 90 minutes, blocking off traffic on Grove along the south side of the store.
Grant said it had been a few years since there was a bomb scare in the city. They’re usually pranks pulled at schools during exam week, he said, but even those have been absent during the past few years.
As for Monday, no threats were made to store employees, but police have identifed a person of interest.
“There was a complaint earlier in the day about the treatment of military veterans, but he never made any threats,” Grant said of one shopper.
(Contact Chris Jackett at [email protected])