A Tennessee man’s DIY “rubber bumper” caused a false alarm “bomb threat” and led to local businesses closing and nearby schools being sent into lockdown for hours.
Police in Murfreesboro were called to First Watch restaurant Tuesday morning about a “bomb” being strapped to a car in the parking lot of the “health-minded” cafe.
When officers arrived, they found two white cloths duct-taped to the passenger side of a grey sedan with wires running out around the front door handle.
“All businesses in the shopping plaza were evacuated for nearly two hours as a precaution,” the Murfreesboro Police Department said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
“They told us there was a bomb threat and basically screamed at us to get out of the building,” Leslie Huggins told WKRN.
Several Rutherford County Schools, located five miles from the scene, were placed on lockdown after investigators looked into an address connected to the car’s license plate.
A police supervisor then contacted the car’s owner, who was standing on the other side of the street with the other evacuees, unaware his car prompted a massive emergency response.
The owner confirmed the “bomb” was his attempt at a “rubber bumper,” with suction cups and to the passenger side door to prevent dents while parked.
“We had a massive, massive response to this location to find out it was a man who was trying to prevent his car from being dented,” Larry Flowers a Public Information Officer for the Murfreesboro Police and Fire Departments told the news outlet at the scene.
The school’s lockdowns were lifted after the Tennessee Highway Special Operations Unit gave the “all-clear,” the MPD announced just before 1 p.m.
No charges were filed against the car’s owner as “there was no intent to cause harm,” the department announced.
Earlier this month, an international flight to Florida was redirected after a passenger mistook an adult diaper inside a black plastic bag for a bomb.
A Copa Airlines flight headed from Panama City to Tampa was redirected back to Tocumen International Airport in Panama after the “suspicious package” was discovered inside one of the plane’s bathrooms.
144 passengers deboarded the plane so anti-explosive teams could search the aircraft. The flight took back off five hours after its initial take off.