At lunchtime Wednesday, a man with a large piece of luggage visited the Carter Building in Leonardtown; where the St. Mary’s Commissioners’ and other staff offices are housed.
The man, assuming he would be prevented from entering with the luggage, left the suitcase on the steps of the building and asked the front clerk inside to keep an eye on it while he went to a social service office.
The man’s appearance and actions, and the large unattended suitcase on the steps, struck officials as odd, Sheriff Cameron told The Bay Net.
It wasn’t long before the man re-appeared from the building and pulled open the suitcase to reveal his laundry.
By that time though, police had taken up perimeter positions and the K9 bomb detector was on the way.
Cameron said it was clear after the man opened the suitcase the situation was a case of mistaking identities, this was just a guy with a suitcase full of clothes.
The Bomb Dog gave the suitcase a scan, the man went on his way and everything went back to normal in Leonardtown.
“It caused a heightened alert, but everything turned out to be fine,” Dep Cindy Allen, Sheriff’s Office public information officer, told The Bay Net.
Police evacuated the STS bus stop and surrounding areas and an officer was sent into the building to find the man, Allen said. “The whole thing didn’t last more than 45 minutes.”