THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511160260
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Mail operations were delayed for several hours Wednesday after an employee reported what he thought was a bomb at the U.S. Post Office on Ehringhaus Street.
Employees at the post office and several neighboring businesses, as well as residents of a nearby mobile home park, were evacuated and traffic was rerouted while about 35 police and emergency personnel investigated.
No explosives were found.
A post office employee apparently suspected that an undisclosed item found about 6 a.m. on a loading dock might contain a ``hazardous device'' and contacted police, officials said.
No threatening notes or telephone calls had been made. Neither police nor postal officials would identify the suspicious item for fear of future pranksters, they said.
``Basically, we had a situation where we thought a threat might exist,'' said Postmaster Howard Hodges, who has worked at the postal center since it opened in 1971.
``The police defused the situation quickly and very professionally. It's business as usual now. We're just running behind,'' Hodges said about 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Although the post office was closed for up to four hours, Hodges said mail would be delivered before nightfall.
This was the first bomb scare Hodges could recall at the facility, located next to a car dealership and restaurant-business commercial strip.
Among those who responded were the Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County police departments, Elizabeth City Fire Department, Pasquotank-Camden Emergency Management Services and rescue squad personnel and a bomb disposal unit from Chesapeake.
KEYWORDS: EXPLOSIVES BOMB SCARE by CNB