Published on Thursday, October 26, 2006
in the Tallahassee Democrat

Fake bomb fools experts

Trainers built a fake bomb that looked so authentic, they fooled themselves when they mistook their training tool for a real bomb Monday at the Florida Highway Patrol's Training Academy.

"It was so effective it created doubt in the expert's mind," Maj. Ernie Duarte, FHP spokesman, said. The coffee can with an old clock attached to it was detonated by the Big Bend Regional Bomb Squad.

Children from Sabal Palm Elementary School were sent home an hour early and the school was placed on lockdown after officials discovered the device.

"When we initially located the device it was on a timer; we had to act immediately," Chris Chase, Leon County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said.

An FHP trooper discovered it when cleaning out the abandoned building on Eisenhower Street, Duarte said. FHP moved its training operations to the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy about a year ago.

The building "wasn't as well-inspected as the main building that had the weapons and munions," Duarte said.

The building was being inspected one last time before keys were handed over to the Department of Environmental Protection, which will use the property.