Photo by @ridsel
Around 9:30am this morning, police closed off blocks of 8th Avenue and California streets after reports of a suspicious package atop the garbage can on the northwest corner.
The bomb squad was sent to investigate and employed their robot to approach the garbage can.
Streets are still closed as of this writing, and MUNI buses are being routed around the closure. We’ll update as we hear more news on the situation.
Sarah B.
UPDATE 11:12am: Shelter in place has been called but no evacuations have been ordered. [SFAppeal]
UPDATE 11:15am: Reader Joy reports that “Cops are leaving now. They said it was a battery pack for a bike light.”
Please update us on this as it unfolds! I live near there.
A suspicious package found IN a trashcan? I think the most important question here is, what kind of person is someone who would dig around in a trashcan yet is lucid enough to report a package as being suspicious?
Cops are leaving now. They said it was a battery pack for a bike light.
It was on top of the trash can – clearly visible to all who walked by.
I’m confused as to what makes someone consider this, or any other random box, a suspicious package on top of a trashcan in a neighborhood with relatively little traffic (in comparison to downtown).
Seems like an overreaction seeing as people place *boxes* in *trashcans* per their purpose.
Was this related to the police block-off of El Camino del Mar between 26th and 32nd Avenues this morning around 11:30am? The Avenue side streets were all blocked off by meter maid carts and police cars, with patrolmen guarding each street.
In SF, we are INSTRUCTED to leave batteries on top of trash cans, for recycling. Um, hello?!?
haha I wonder who complained about this “suspicious” package
damn cyclists! a bunch of terrorists, i tell you. seriously, i’m just glad to finally know what it takes to get the SFPD to investigate a crime.
We have our answer on why something that sounds so benign was taken do seriously: Obama is in the Richmond.
@tarnlv, is that why the police blockade of seacliff? i thought obama was headed to pac heights for fundraisers. why is he in the richmond/seacliff area?
@Jay well, the Richmond blog twitter feed says he was out there. I also heard a LOT of sirens this afternoon’, and saw 3 cars with US gov plates and two with Virginia plates slowly driving around when out walking.
All signs point to yes, he was out in the Richmond/Sea Cliff area this afternoon
indeed Pres. Obama was in the area as Sea Cliff resident Tom Steyer hosted a fundraiser this morning.
I would love to control that thing!