No Bomb After All *LATE EDIT*

Late Edit: Upon just consulting with a local social engineer I have discovered through my browser the two articles that I read last night that I used as part of source other than my own honest observations and photographs to write the post below. Article 1 came from the Charlotte Observer posted last night. Article 2 came from WBTV posted last night as well. I apologize for any confusion you may have when you read, compare and contrast the three stories of what really happened in the Jar yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon the J called me saying that there was a police lock down on 3rd and Caldwell that looked like it went across to 5th and Brevard. Just as I hung up the phone I was in front of the Corporate Center and I over heard some police traffic on the radio. There was a suspicious cylindrical device on an above ground utility box. I asked an officer who for the sake of his own dignity requested that I not mention him by name on my blog, "What's going on down there?" "They think they have a pipe bomb on a box", this honorable deputy of the law replied.
The first thought I had reminded me of when a suspicious device was found near a flower pot on the sidewalk in front of the Hearst Tower back in July of 2008 . That one turned out to be a real pipe bomb minus the charge. So, I jumped on my bike with camera in the bag and rode down 3rd Street until I was stopped by 3 policemen at the Brevard intersection. Nothing really to see here except the helicopters lined up in the sky waiting their turn to get right on top of the scene. After talking with photographer Hannah from Oslo Norway for a few minutes I rode around and went down 4th to Caldwell where I met the J and we watched the following:

The bomb robot.
I am pretty sure that this dog is a Belgian Malinois being handled by an Officer from the US Federal Reserve which is across the street off camera just to the left of this picture. Notice CMPD's Chief of Police Rodney D. Monroe second from the left on scene. It is good to see that the Chief is out there on the street actually involved with helping the Indians. In this case there was only one Chief and plenty of Indians.

A more definite photo of Mr. Monroe that I swiped from the google/images dot com. Photographer unidentified.

Off in the distance a block away there is a police car parked on the left hand side. The suspicious cylindrical device was found just behind where that car is parked.

Another day at the office for the robot.

The officer in the green 'bomb proof' suite had the most exciting responsibilities of the operation. Getting him geared up was a team effort.

The robot rolled past the scene at first because it smelled hot dogs cooking on 2nd street.

The bomb squad officer in Green made his way to the scene. He came back once, was given a black satchel and then went back to work. Within a minute or two he appeared again facing the command vehicles and gave 2 thumbs up. Then he crouched behind that tan'ish wall.

Next the sirens started wailing and there was a verbal warning that repeated itself three times, "Fire in the Hole". 10 seconds later pressure charged water blew the device to bits with a report that sounded like a muffled hand grenade and all involved seemed happy. High fives, hand shakes and I think I even saw a slap on the back. According to the local news media the suspicious device turned out to be nothing more than a piece of electrical garbage.