{"id":12273,"date":"2022-07-21T05:15:55","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T09:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&#038;p=12273"},"modified":"2022-07-22T19:09:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T23:09:32","slug":"a-suspicious-device-at-a-gaines-street-construction-site-caused-an-evacuation-it-was-a-piece-of-o","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-suspicious-device-at-a-gaines-street-construction-site-caused-an-evacuation-it-was-a-piece-of-o\/","title":{"rendered":"A &#8216;suspicious device&#8217; at a Gaines Street construction site caused an evacuation. It was a piece of o"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 900 block of Gaines Street was shuttered for hours Wednesday after a construction crew working in the area uncovered what law enforcement called a &#8220;suspicious device.&#8221; The Tallahassee Online Police Statistics map, which reports calls in real-time, had a bomb symbol over the area, but, after a more than six-hour tense wait, a crew from the Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City determined the partially unearthed device, was actually a piece of old mechanical equipment.<\/p>\n<p>The saga began around 9:48 a.m. Wednesday when the construction crew working the site partially unearthed what appeared to be an anvil-like object buried in the mud. Workers on the site reported what was then thought to be an &#8220;historical ordinance.&#8221; Due to the object&#8217;s age and physical condition experts were initially unable to figure out what it was.<\/p>\n<p>As investigators sought to figure it out, an apartment building and other nearby residents were evacuated, and streets closed off.<\/p>\n<p>A crew from Panama City\u2019s Tyndall Air Force base arrived in Tallahassee around 3 p.m. to decipher the object&#8217;s origins and determine whether it posed a threat. After inspection, the team determined the object was just a piece of old mechanical equipment and did not pose a threat, effectively diffusing the situation. The object was reburied.<\/p>\n<p>In the interim hours speculation about what the device could be was rampant. Most observers suggested it was an unexploded World War II-era bomb, as the area had been a part of the now-defunct Dale Mabry Airfield, which trained pilots including some of the Tuskegee Airmen.<\/p>\n<p>The field was decommissioned in 1946, and the land it sat on is now most of Tallahassee Community College, the city jail, and parts of West Gaines Street.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of a likely bomb was not far-fetched: in 2016, an unexploded device dating back to that era in Tallahassee&#8217;s history was found under a tree on Madison Street.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&amp;utmdt=A+%27suspicious+device%27+at+a+Gaines+Street+construction+site+caused+an+evacuation.+It+was+a+piece+of+o&amp;utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA4MzU1MzUzMDEzMTkyMzAwMzY5MjY1Mw004)\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12274,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A &#039;suspicious device&#039; at a Gaines Street construction site caused an evacuation. 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It was a piece of o - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 900 block of Gaines Street was shuttered for hours Wednesday after a construction crew working in the area uncovered what law enforcement called a &quot;suspicious device.&quot; After a more than six-hour wait, a crew from the Tyndall Air Force Base determined the partially unearthed device was actually a piece of old mechanical equipment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-suspicious-device-at-a-gaines-street-construction-site-caused-an-evacuation-it-was-a-piece-of-o\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-22T23:09:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/mechanicaldevice.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-suspicious-device-at-a-gaines-street-construction-site-caused-an-evacuation-it-was-a-piece-of-o\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-suspicious-device-at-a-gaines-street-construction-site-caused-an-evacuation-it-was-a-piece-of-o\/\",\"name\":\"A 'suspicious device' at a Gaines Street construction site caused an evacuation. 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