Hastings, Minn., Walmart is evacuated after bomb scare
HASTINGS, Minn. - A Walmart store here was evacuated early Wednesday morning after maintenance employees found two suspicious looking containers outside the building.
According to Hastings Police Chief Mike McMenomy, Hastings Police received a call at 3:22 a.m. from a Walmart maintenance employee who indicated several employees had gone outside the building and found two suspicious looking plastic containers, identical in size, with different-colored fluids in them. Holes had been drilled into the top lids and cotton stuffed in the holes.
"They (the employees) put the containers into a shopping cart and moved them to the east side of the building," McMenomy said.
St. Paul Police Department bomb squad responded and took the containers to its lab for testing. Those results were not immediately available.
Police officers say the building was cleared and check, but nothing suspicious was found inside.
The scene was cleared by 7 a.m. and the store re-opened for business.
Jane Ligthbourn is a reporter at the Hastings (Minn.) Star-Gazette, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.