Crime & Safety
Downtown Joliet Bomb Scare — Update! — Everyone Safe
A Monday morning bomb scare forced the authorities to shut down North Chicago Street to Jefferson Street but it turned out not to be a bomb after all.
A Monday morning bomb scare forced the closure of North Chicago Street up to Jefferson Street but it turned out there was no bomb after all.
The suspected bomb ended up being packages containing a DVD player and a cell phone deposited in a FedEx box near the corner of Chicago and Jefferson streets.
"It was somewhat defaced before it was (placed) in the dropbox," Deputy Joliet Fire Chief Ray Randich said of the cell phone box which was placed in the FedEx box by an unidentified woman.
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The Cook County Bomb Squad responded and appeared to X-ray the FedEx dropbox before removing the two packages.
"It was an electronic device that was being returned," Randich said of the suspicious packages. "At this point it was determined there was no threat."
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The scare was prompted by the unidentified woman's peculiar behavior, said Joliet police Cmdr. Rich Demick
"We got a call of a suspicious woman who dropped a suspicious package" into the FedEx box, Demick said.
The bomb scare apparently has no connection to the NATO protests in Chicago.
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