Hoax Bomb - Complete With Dynamite-Looking Sticks, Timer, Wires - Left Outside Redwood City Hall

REDWOOD CITY, CA – An apparent hoax bomb was left outside of City Hall in Redwood City this morning, prompting a scare that shut down the building and surrounding streets for about 90 minutes, a police lieutenant said.

A maintenance worker doing landscaping outside the building, located at 1017 Middlefield Road, discovered the device at about 9:50 a.m., Lt. Sean Hart said.

It looked like a bundle of red sticks with wires and a timer on it and appeared like it could be a bundle of dynamite, Hart said.

Redwood City police responded and notified the San Mateo County Bomb Squad.

Authorities shut down City Hall, evacuated the employees, and closed Middlefield Road between Jefferson and Main streets to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

The bomb squad hit the package with a water cannon to defuse it at about 11:20 a.m. and concluded that it was not an explosive.

Instead, it was a bundle of cardboard made up with the wires and timer to look like a bomb, Hart said. No bomb threat was called in and police have not determined why someone left the hoax device there.

No suspects are in custody. About five minutes later, City Hall reopened for normal business.

Anyone with information about the incident has been asked to call Redwood City police at (650) 780-7100.

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-Bay City News/File photo