Heber City’s Main Street was closed for much of Monday morning as the Utah County bomb squad investigated a suspicious package.
At about 9:50 AM local law enforcement received a 911 call reporting a suspicious package in front of the Zions Bank on Heber’s Main Street. Shortly after the call traffic was closed on Heber’s Main Street between Center Street and 100 North.
KayCe Goodrich works for American Family Insurance located on the upper level of the Bank Block building across the street from Zions Bank. She says the day started out normal but changed by mid-morning.
“People started calling and asking if we were OK, and what we were seeing," Goodrich explained. "We were just completely unaware and so we looked outside and sure enough there's this little package out there. Cops had stopped traffic in all directions and had cleared out Zion's bank and gave optional evacuation notices for everybody else.”
Businesses in the area were closed while officials waited for Utah County bomb squad to arrive. When they did arrive, the bomb squad deployed a robot to look at the bag.
“They kept us all informed of what was happening, what we were going to see maybe in the next few minutes," Goodrich continued. "Kept us posted an evacuation status if it was optional still, or mandatory. At a certain point in time it did become mandatory once they brought in the robotic bomb thing that they test it with and open packages with. Once they brought that in and started actually messing with the bag, they made sure to come back all the way upstairs and talk to us and let us know that we were now under a mandatory evacuation.”
The bomb squad found that the bag contained personal items, and there was no danger. At which point they reopened Main Street.
Traffic was rerouted during the incident for about three and a half hours. Main Street was opened at about 1:30 in the afternoon. Goodrich says she’s thankful for law enforcements work.
“Stay alert and just keep your eyes out for different things," Goodrich said. "It takes a community to prevent loss and that's something that we can all just keep our eyes out for.”
The Heber City Police Department also thanked the community for their patience as they handled the situation.
