Four blocks around the police headquarters in downtown Oakland were evacuated earlier today after something looking like a bomb appeared on the loading dock of a Salvation Army location. According to the Salvation Army employee who found the bomb around 9 a.m. this morning, the "bomb" resembled "a 10-inch by 4-inch ice chest with wires, tape and other other 'bomb-type' apparatus." Apparently it also had a menacing LED light.
A bomb squad from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department determined the cooler-like, blinky, wired thing was actually a hoax. Evacuees in the area between 6th, 8th, Broadway and Webster Streets downtown were expected to be allowed back in to the area by early afternoon. Zero things blew up.
