Hour long SWAT standoff over after officers discover no one is home

[doxydad]

HAYWARD, Calif. —A SWAT standoff in Hayward ended at 5:30 Tuesday evening when law enforcement determined no one was inside the home in the 27000 block of Gainesville Boulevard.

It started just before 10:00 a.m. when Alameda County Sheriff's deputies went to serve an eviction notice to a tenant. Hayward police say when deputies entered the home, they found suspicious notes indicating there were explosives inside the home. That's when the bomb squad and SWAT where called to the scene, and streets were blocked off to traffic.

Neighbors in the surrounding homes were told to evacuate. One of them told KTVU she text messaged with the man, who police aren't identifying yet.

"When I text him I just said, 'the bomb squad is here, cops are here'," Jenny Raisler said reading their text exchange on her phone. "I was just saying, 'Look, if you went crazy and made a bomb, let me know so I can get out of here!' He just said, 'I have no idea what they're (law enforcement) talking about'."

Several times law enforcement could be heard shouting through a loudspeaker for the man they believed was inside the home to come out, promising law enforcement wasn't going away until that happened. SWAT teams entered the property several times. There were snipers behind armored vehicles and on rooftops, and the bomb squad sent in three different robots.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/eviction-attempt-leads-tense-swat-standoff-hayward/ngqd3/

"That's good work, boys!" ~ Chief Clancy Wiggums

[NightWatcher]

1. but does your bomb squad blow up garbage bags sitting next to dumpsters?

Our bomb squad is called out several times a week to blow up some bag of trash 'suspiciously' left near trash bins. They've blown up lunchboxes near playgrounds. My fav was a couple of months ago they were called to a suspicious ( its always suspicious) bag next to a McD's parking lot. The bag ended up being a bag of trash from a meal from McD's.

[doxydad]

2. no but...

We had one ammosexual here on the local 'poleeze squad' who emptied 2 hand guns into a bean bag. thought it was 'moving'..... seriously.

[former9thward]

3. Which is why cities are going broke.

They are paying for all this nonsense.

[sharp_stick]

6. We had the police & FBI shut down

and evacuate an IKEA store plus about 3 city blocks in New Haven because someone found some "suspicious white powder". It turned out to be an urban running club who used flour to mark a track that happened to go through the far side of the IKEA parking lot and around the local neighborhood.

They were of course terrified that it could be Anthrax, never mind the fact that it would take a military production facility about 20 years to produce enough spores to make the little piles just in the IKEA lot.

When the mayor, police chief and FBI spokesman came on the news to announce that it "appeared" to not be Anthrax about 2 or 3 hours after shutting everything down I just shook my head.

[tech3149]

4. Seriously? SWAT and a bomb squad for an eviction notice?

Are we really that freakin stupid or just that freakin dumb? Things will change only when your upstanding well paid neighbor has to endure the same sort of treatment for an overdue bill.

[IronLionZion]

5. When the US war machine gives them military surplus equipment

you know they are just itching for any excuse to use it.

[hifiguy]

7. Dumber 'n ditchwater.