Pearl Street Mall Back Open In Boulder After Threatening Call About Explosive Devices
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - After being closed for nearly 4 hours due to a suspicious package investigation, the Pearl Street Mall is back open in Boulder. Someone called Boulder police on Thursday morning and said there were multiple explosive devices with remote controlled detonation in the area around the popular pedestrian mall. The call came in at approximately 10:30 a.m. to the records division.
Police responded along with firefighters, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office and several other law enforcement agencies. The FBI also joined in the investigation.
Roads were closed off, people were asked to shelter in place if they were in buildings and any pedestrians outside were instructed to evacuate the pedestrian mall.
Officers investigated the area and found "approximately three suspicious items that we checked and cleared that were not dangerous, were not explosive devices," according to Boulder police spokeswoman Dionne Waugh said. The items that were found were a suitcase, a sandbag and a weight for a tent.
The area remained closed for several hours, and at 1 p.m. Waugh said explosive detection dogs were being walked through the area of Pearl Street and 13th "out of an abundance of caution."
Police reopened the area completely at 1:30 p.m.
"We always want to operate out of an abundance of caution, just in case something turns out to be dangerous. It's kind of a large area. It's popular here in the middle of the day here on Pearl Street, so we appreciate the community's understanding, especially we know people are concerned with what's been going on here lately," she said, referring to the King Soopers mass shooting on March 22.