Rohnert Park continues investigation of reported explosive device
Published: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 8:55 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 8:12 a.m.
Rohnert Park Public Safety Department officials continued Wednesday to investigate an incident involving an explosive device left in an abandoned truck that led to the evacuation of about 20 nearby homes.
The truck's owner had family on the street, Mary Place, and the truck was parked in front of their house. But the owner now lives in Marin County, said Rohnert Park Police Sgt. Jeff Justice.
The name of the truck's owner, who told police where to find the device, was being withheld because of the investigation, Justice said.
“We don't have any information that anyone was targeted, just that an item stored in the truck was of a concern,” he said. “We're still investigating how it got there, why it was there.”
Neighbors said the dusty blue Chevrolet flatbed had been abandoned on the block for several months, if not a year.
Police were alerted that something on the truck might be explosive at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Officers spoke to the truck's registered owner, who directed police to an attached tool box in the truck bed, Justice said.
Tuesday, a thick cobweb stretched from the antenna to the windshield of the older-model truck, which was parked in front of a home about mid-block in the neighborhood off Bodway Parkway.
Police called a bomb squad from the University of California Berkeley police department, which is under contract to handle explosives in Rohnert Park.
The bomb squad asked officers to evacuate the block before they arrived at 8:30 p.m.
Officers cordoned off the block and, along with firefighters, asked neighbors to leave their homes.
Residents stood outside for more than two hours.
The bomb squad inspected the truck and removed the device. They also would be in charge of disposing of it, Justice said.
Neighbors were told they could return home and the street was opened at about 10:30 p.m. Police also called people who had left the area to alert them the block was safe.
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