Pipe bomb scare evacuates Oak Harbor buildings

The Oak Harbor police department, City Hall and the ICOM dispatch center were evacuated for about an hour and a half Monday after a man brought a suspected bomb to the police. Lt. Tim Sterkel, the acting police chief, said a man found an object that looks like a pipe bomb at the Monroe Landing beach. It was a three-inch, double-threaded pipe with the ends screwed on and what appeared to be a fuse attached.

August 3, 2012 5:50 pm
A member of the Navy Explosive Ordnance Detachment carries a box containing a suspected pipe bomb found at a Whidbey beach. Oak Harbor city buildings had to be evacuated after the man who found it brought it to the police station.
A member of the Navy Explosive Ordnance Detachment carries a box containing a suspected pipe bomb found at a Whidbey beach. Oak Harbor city buildings had to be evacuated after the man who found it brought it to the police station.

The Oak Harbor police department, City Hall and the ICOM dispatch center were evacuated for about an hour and a half Monday after a man brought a suspected bomb to the police.

Lt. Tim Sterkel, the acting police chief, said a man found an object that looks like a pipe bomb at the Monroe Landing beach. It was a three-inch, double-threaded pipe with the ends screwed on and what appeared to be a fuse attached.

The man picked up the suspected bomb, put it in his car and drove to the police station to report it.

Sterkel said the man had parked his car next to a propane tank, so the police immediately evacuated the nearby buildings. The 911 calls were routed to Skagit dispatch and the police set up a command center in a different parking lot.

Sterkel said Navy Explosive Ordnance Detachment was called in to deal with the potential explosive devise. Judging from the EOD’s response, the pipe probably wasn’t a bomb.

“It must not have been a big deal because the guy just picked it up and brought it with him,” Sterkel said, adding that the man wasn’t outfitted in any protective gear.

Sterkel said EOD will probably send the police a report explaining what the device was.