200 Evacuated in Soda-Can Bomb Scare
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Police officials shut down the westbound lanes of one of Los Angeles’ busiest freeways Monday morning and evacuated 200 office workers at the Sunkist headquarters building in Sherman Oaks after an object wrongly thought to be a bomb was discovered.
Traffic on the westbound Ventura Freeway came to a halt near Hazeltine Avenue about 9:30 a.m. and motorists frustrated by the wait began backing up along the shoulder and exiting at Woodman Avenue.
Los Angeles police had been called to the building on Hazeltine near Riverside Drive about 8:15 a.m. after an employee discovered a heavier-than-normal open soda can in the building’s lobby.
Police Sgt. David Breedlove said officers who responded to a call from the company alerted the LAPD bomb squad, which recommended that traffic be diverted off the highway before the can was blown up. The can contained only sand and some other type of material, Breedlove said.
Employees returned to the building and the freeway lanes reopened about 10 a.m., spokesmen for the company and Caltrans said.
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