By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Clallam County Courthouse was evacuated and all activities cancelled Monday after a suspicious package was left on a table in the main lobby.
We spoke with Undersheriff Ron Cameron a few minutes before 2:00, just as the Bomb Squad had arrived.
“It was discovered at 11:30 and course of the squad was called right away and we evacuated the building over the next half hour because it kind of wanted to check for more…anything else. But the first guy arrived here about 1:00, 1:15 and just as you called, about maybe two minutes before, the rest of the guys got here. So the guy went in to take a look, he’s all suited up and on his way in now.”
Cameron says the package was a box, about 15 inches long, 8 inches wide and about 4 inches deep. There was no one that could give a detailed description of who may have left the box, but it is known that it had not been there long as there are employees that frequent the area regularly.
Ultimately, they found that the box simply contained some old tennis shoes, a shopping list and some drug paraphernalia.
By the way, the jail was not evacuated because of its distance from the package and the belief that the secure construction of that part of the building would minimize impacts to people in that section.
The courthouse will reopen for business Tuesday morning.
(Staff photo of WSP Bomb Squad truck at Courthouse.)