news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A suspicious briefcase that closed a private downtown parking deck this morning turned out to be only that — a briefcase.

Renaissance Plaza security guards making their early morning rounds found the briefcase and called police. The department's Hazardous Devices Team blew up the contents of the briefcase shortly before 9:30 a.m.

Police said the briefcase had nothing dangerous inside and are trying to locate its owner. No one was hurt.

The parking deck, at the corner of Bellemeade and Davie streets and adjacent to Center City Park, was closed this morning. Renaissance Plaza, home to AIG United Guaranty and other business, remained open.

The closure caused morning rush hour traffic to back up in both directions on North Elm Street, where the deck's main entrance is.

Assistant Chief D.K. Crotts gave this account:

At 6:31 a.m., security guards found a briefcase in one of the deck's upper levels. Police sealed off the deck, and the department's bomb squad arrived shortly before 8:30 a.m.

Because the briefcase was against one of the deck's walls, a bomb squad robot could not take an X-ray to help police determine what was inside. So police decided to use the robot to blow up the contents of the briefcase at 9:25 a.m. The blast could be heard at least a block away.

Officer V.S. Hylton later put on a bomb disposal suit and checked the remains of the briefcase. Police were satisfied at that point that the briefcase posed no danger.

Later, officers wheeled the police robot back to its trailer. The robot was carrying a black hard-sided briefcase.

Crotts said police do not know how long the briefcase had been in the parking deck and do not know who it belongs to. Police suspect that someone might have accidentally left it there.

Crotts added that the bomb squad thought there was little chance of debris because of where the briefcase was in the concrete parking deck. That's why police let office workers stay in the building and did not close either Center City Park or surrounding streets.

This is the second time this week that the hazardous devices unit was called out to downtown.

An abandoned suitcase and cardboard box led to the closure of several downtown streets late Monday night. After investigating, the only thing found in the suitcase was clothes.

Police are still investigating whether the two recent suspicious packages are connected.

"As of right now, we don't have anything to link them together," Crotts said.

Any abandoned property is considered suspicious if an owner can't be found, Crotts said.

"There is always an effort to locate an owner," he said.