Authorities are looking for a suspect seen in a black truck
outside Pacific Scientific on Saturday morning shortly before a
security guard discovered a suspicious package, which a bomb squad
blew up as a precaution before realizing it was a hoax.
Authorities are looking for a suspect seen in a black truck outside Pacific Scientific on Saturday morning shortly before a security guard discovered a suspicious package, which a bomb squad blew up as a precaution before realizing it was a hoax.
A security guard at the small-explosives manufacturer located outside Hollister along Union Road noticed the suspicious package shortly after 8 a.m. on a shoulder of the driveway entrance, said Lt. Roy Iler with the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office. It was about the size of a phone book and was wrapped with duct tape, with no other writings or indications of what might have been inside, according to the sheriff’s office.
The security guard told investigators that a small, black truck had pulled to the side of the road for “some time” before it was left there. When the guard looked up at one point, the truck was gone and the suspicious package was in the road, Iler said. Local authorities thought it looked suspicious and called in mutual-aid help from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad.
That three-person bomb-squad team arrived and used a robot to get close to the package. The camera on the robot showed that “something didn’t look right,” Iler said, so a bomb-squad member put on a protection suit, approached the package and used a hand-held X-ray machine to examine it. The X-ray revealed there were a lot of wires within the package, according to the sheriff’s office.
“They couldn’t tell if it had any explosives or not,” Iler said. “It appeared to them it did not.”
Still, authorities decided to attempt a detonation in case there were explosives inside. They blew up the package at the same spot and determined there were no explosives, Iler said.
There was additional concern due to the operations at Pacific Scientific, 3601 Union Road. The company at the 200,000-square-foot facility is involved in high-volume ordnance devices, electronic and laser systems, laser components and systems, aircrew safety systems and components, and active protection systems, according to its website.
Iler said it helped that the sheriff’s office is familiar with the site and aware that it makes smaller explosives. He noted how the local sheriff’s office gets mutual-aid help from the neighboring bomb squad about twice a year.
“Definitely (there was concern) because we know there is more explosive stuff nearby,” he said.
The California Highway Patrol assisted in closing the road and rerouting traffic for around four hours from the Highway 156 intersection to Riverside Road. A Calfire crew also came to the scene for precaution.
A Pacific Scientific media representative could not be reached immediately before publication.
