UPDATED: LBPD: Call for Suspicious Package Was False Alarm

* This story was updated at 10 p.m. on 10.16.13

The Long Beach Police Department and Nassau County Bomb Squad discovered that a call about a suspicious package left outside the Long Beach Library on Wednesday was a false alarm.

“The bag turned out to be nothing more than personal belongings that are currently being vouchered at headquarters,” Lt. Eric Cregeen, LBPD spokesman, told Patch.

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Just before 1 p.m. on Oct 16 the department received a call about a suspicious package that was left in a bush outside the front of the library, at 111 W. Park Ave. in Long Beach, Cregeen said.

The LBPD responded to the scene, created a perimeter with yellow police tape, and asked the people in charge at the library, as well as at an adjacent Starbucks and a deli, to voluntarily evacuate their buildings, and they all complied, Cregeen said.

The LBPD notified the county bomb squad about the suspicious bag, which took an x-ray of to determine its contents.

Wednesday’s incident is the third reported package-related scare in Long Beach this year. On April 17, a City of Long Beach bus driver notified the LBPD of a suspicious bag left unattended in the Long Island Rail Road lobby, after which the bag was determined to be a lost piece of luggage. On May 6, the LBPD received a report of a suspicious bag left at the bus depot which officers later determined two unattended suitcases.