Suspicious container turns out to be tin of beans

In the interest of public safety, someone spilled the beans.

Washington State Patrol technicians deployed a “disrupter” bomb detonator this morning in the parking lot next to the Adult and Child protective services building at 208 W. Poplar St.

Upon arriving at work about 9 a.m., Department of Social and Health Services employees spied an old-fashioned aluminum tin can set upon a piece of plywood paneling at the corner of the building where clients and employees cross from the parking lot to access office doors.

The tin was about a two to three gallon-sized container and marked with “Ware Mart,” said Officer Ron Gilbreath of the Walla Walla Police Department.

It was labeled “beans.”

DSHS employees called the law enforcement officials and vacated the building as a precaution, he said, standing on the sidewalk in front of the offices. “There could be enough explosives in there to blow that building up. We have no idea what the bottom of the can looks like.”

A Walla Walla-based bomb technician with the Washington State Patrol assessed the situation and told officers he did not like the looks of things, so more equipment and men were called in.

“They will not operate with just one man,” Gilbreath explained. “They want two men there.”

Assuming the innocence of any container was a lesson learned in December of 2008 when a bank bombing in Woodburn, Ore., caused the death of those two officers, he added. In that case, the bomb was in a modest-sized green, metal box that appeared just hours after a fake bomb was found in the area, according to news reports.

Upon arrival in the DSHS parking lot, technicians X-rayed the tin, but density of the contents prevented getting a good picture.

With a percussive crack that walloped nearby buildings, officers shot the tin, punching a hole in the metal. Out from the funnel-shaped hole spilled white beans, mostly pulverized by the blast.

With that potential crisis in the can, at least the clean up would be easy, one technician remarked. “I’ll get a broom.”

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