Downtown Felton was a bit on edge on Friday morning after the discovery of a suspicious package in the parking lot behind Redwood Pizzeria brought a response from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad.
According to Sgt. Esther Beckman, the call came through just before 9 a.m. after a passerby noticed a cardboard box in the parking lot with metallic items protruding from the top. The passerby reported it to the Felton Fire Protection District.
“I just walked out the door at 9:30 (a.m.) and there was a commotion,” said Sabrina Lancelotti, a nearby resident of Gushee Street.
Lancelotti said that no one had told her what was going on despite her residence being in close proximity to the site.
“They just told us not to worry about it,” she said.
Soon after the report was made, bomb squad Lt. Amy Christey was called away from her run at the beach, picked up by patrol car and whisked to the scene.
“We have a protocol on suspicious items where we call in the bomb squad,” Beckman said.
Patrol cars and police tape cordoned off roughly a block of Gushee Street around the intersection with Kirby Street, while Christey donned the 90-plus pound suit to approach the item.
Christey described the box as being roughly six inches in width and depth and a foot in length.
“It appeared to be a little oily and possibly with an antenna,” she said.
After taking X-rays, it seemed likely that the box was not harmful, but, taking no chances, Christey placed a remote separation device next to the package and remotely triggered it to separate the contents of the box.
“I impersonated the (bomb-sniffing) robot today,” Christey said with a laugh.
A closer look at the pieces of the box revealed that it was mostly small metal rods stuck inside Styrofoam, Christey said.
“This was not an improvised explosive device,” she said. “But there’s no explanation as to why it was there.”
An address was found on the remnants of the box, and Christey said that there would be an investigation.
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