TOCCOA — An apparent attempt to surprise someone with a gift backfired Friday when it prompted the evacuation of downtown Toccoa.
“Late Friday afternoon, we were notified of a package that was laying on one of our power transformer boxes in our historic downtown area,” said Toccoa Police Chief Tim Jarrell. “It was a package that was approximately eight inches by about six inches and about two and a half to three inches thick, and it was wrapped in gift paper.”
The complainant told police he had gone to pick up the package and noticed it had some weight to it and decided to gently set it back down, according to Jarrell.
“We evacuated the street of any pedestrians and started going door to door ask if anyone knew where it came from,” Jarrell said.
During that process, police learned the package had been seen near the door of a business shortly before it was reported laying on the transformer.
After contacting the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and speaking with a bomb technician, police made the decision to shut down the entire historic downtown area, Jarrell said.
“We blocked off the east and west side of West Doyle Street,” Jarrell said. “Toccoa Fire Department responded to assist us with that.”
When GBI arrived, bomb technicians checked the package and deemed it safe.
After further examination, the package was found to contain music compact discs “and was left either surprisingly and intentionally and the person wasn’t expecting them,” Jarrell said. “We erred on the side of caution. We wanted to be safe rather than have an incident.”
Jarrell said several elements factored into the decision by police to conduct an evacuation and shut down the downtown area.
“Its proximity to government offices was a reason,” Jarrell said. “There are a lot of businesses and government offices nearby that played into our decision to take this very seriously.”
Jarrell said businesses and individuals were very cooperative during the incident and evacuation, which lasted a total of about two hours.
“We do very much appreciate the assistance of the Toccoa Fire Department, the GBI and GBI Bomb Squad, but also the citizens,” Jarrell said. “It means a lot when you and your community are able to communicate, even if it’s only briefly and in an emergency situation.”
