Police Clear Downtown Street After Woman Claims To Have Bomb

[Lunican]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla -- Police closed three blocks of Water Street near the Jacksonville Landing downtown at midday Tuesday after a woman claiming to have a bomb left a bag on a bench.

The woman told employees in the Wachovia building at 225 Water Street that she had a bomb in the bag, then left the building, put the bag on a sidewalk bench and walked away.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/19239681/detail.html#-

[Lunican]

Yes the street is still closed.

[Traveller]

I just heard a loud boom about 15 minutes ago.  I'm guessing they detonated whatever was in the bag.

[jandar]

Had most of the Wachovia building emptied due to her looniness.

[copperfiend]

She will now be employed by the city for traffic control after Jaguar home games.

[subro]

I work in the Wachovia building and although the bag was discovered around 11:00, they didn't have us evacuate until around 1:00. It is surreal to look down from your office and to see that the building is cordoned off and no one has told you to leave.

[Lunican]

Jacksonville police explode suspicious package downtown

With a sound like a small cannon going off, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office exploded a suspicious package at 1:43 p.m. today after closing off part of downtown

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2009-04-21/story/jacksonville_police_explode_suspicious_package_downtown

[DetroitInJAX]

Why would anyone want to blow up downtown?  Maybe a bomb detonating would improve its prospects?

[Dapperdan]

Why did they blow it up? Was it an actual bomb? Why are our news sites so vague with their stories?

[Tripoli1711]

In my experience JSO blows everything up first and asks questions later.  I remember someone left a shoe box outside the Courthouse one day.  Nobody knew what it was but we all had to evacuate mid hearing or whatever else you were doing.  They blew it up.  I think it turned out it had a dead squirrel in it.  Someone was making a funny....

[Tripoli1711]

Nah.  But that is quite a situation to be in.  Waiting on "the word".  That was the striking thing about the story.  You are on the 18th floor of a building looking down on what might be a bag full of C4 ready to blow you sky high.  The cops have showed up roped the place off, but they let you hang out in the building another couple hours before they get you out of there.  I think I'd have taken it upon myself to head out the back door for an extended lunch.

[jandar]

Yeah, we were told just stay away from the windows facing hogan and water streets.

Nice job JSO.

[Shwaz]

I could see the Police activity from my building at Jefferson & Bay St.

Sounds like the paticulars are still pretty vague. I'll look for the story later on the news and hopefully there's more details.

[Ocklawaha]

Why would anyone want to blow up downtown?  Maybe a bomb detonating would improve its prospects?

For sure if she was looking for mass death and action, she'd been better off setting it off at midnight in downtown Tombstone.

OCKLAWAHA

[Shwaz]

Lot's of explosive scares activity... school's, roads, downtown - Jacksonville is starting to resemble a plot for Die Hard 5.