Police are still investigating how an object that looked like a pipe bomb ended up on Interstate 75 near Truist Park earlier this month, shutting down part of the highway during the evening commute.

In mid-October, the Cobb County Police Department's bomb squad was called to the scene after officers spotted what appeared to be a pipe with wires and threaded end caps lying in the middle of the interstate.

Sergeant Mario Walker, a member of the department's bomb squad, said his team quickly jumped into action.

"We got the call and I was like, 'OK, let's go out there and see what we got,'" Walker recalled. "One of my guys sent me a picture, and I was like, 'That looks real.'"

The team immediately shut down the highway, redirected traffic, and used a robot to retrieve the object safely. After securing the device, the squad confirmed it was not an explosive.

"It made me feel really good because my training kicked in," Walker said.

Every month, Cobb County's bomb squad trains to handle dangerous situations like this — from learning how to safely handle suspicious packages to utilizing specialized robots, nicknamed Spartan and Tele-Rob, to keep officers out of harm's way.

Sergeant Joel Cade said the squad responds to a wide range of threats, including potential explosives uncovered at Civil War battlefields, threats made against local synagogues, and even items washed up after storms.

"We average, I'd say, a bomb threat a week," Cade said.

For these officers, the mission is about more than just responding to emergencies; it's about protecting the community.

"I was drawn to it because of the technical side of it, and I saw it was something that could really affect my community for the better," Cade said. "If not me, who?"

The investigation into how the object ended up on I-75 remains ongoing.