Suspicious package, later discovered to be blueberries, causes mass evacuation of Geneseo Walmart.

On Sunday, October 24th a blueberry container was discovered in the Geneseo Walmart with duct tape surrounding it and odd wires protruding from it. Staff members began to check the box and felt it was out of the ordinary as they had not seen anything like it before. 

This prompted a call to the Geneseo Police Department as the container was thought to possibly be dangerous. The police chief of the Geneseo Police Department, Eric Osganian, arrived on the scene and quickly decided that an evacuation was necessary at 12:45 p.m.

“There was a thick electrical wire a little thicker than this (a pen Osganian gestured to) coming out of the blueberry container. So they don't know what it is and it just didn’t look right”, said Osganian. 

Osganian decided that a bomb squad was needed to determine if the bomb presented any threat, but unfortunately Geneseo does not have a bomb squad so the department had to wait a half an hour later for the bomb squad from Monroe County Sheriff’s office to arrive.

During the wait for the bomb squad’s arrival there was a mad dash to figure out where the package came from and who had seen it come into the store, but few people had any idea of the package and its origins.

“One employee said it arrived early in the morning, but another said it arrived two days prior and so, Walmart felt comfortable asking its higher management to evacuate based on the appearance of the blueberry container and how little we knew about it”, said Osganian.

The bomb squad arrived soon after and put their bomb sniffing dog who was trained to smell nitrates to work. They also brought scanners to ensure the container was not dangerous and after scanning the container was deemed safe.

“So they scanned the package. And once you scan it, what it was is it seems like somebody at the warehouse, they put temperature probes into, like, proteins to see if temperature is good, said Osganian”. “So it looks like somebody put a temperature probe into this item. And instead of taking it out or discarding the package, they duct taped it, cut the wire on the probe and then shipped it”. 

The evacuation ended shortly after at around 3 p.m. Walmart and the Geneseo Police Department were unable to track down the culprit behind the strange method of packing the blueberry container and decided to end their investigation of the incident. 

Osganian felt the evacuation was more than necessary as they had no way of knowing whether or not the package was safe or even what it was in the first place.

“I’d never seen anything like that. I worked in the produce department for four years, so it was better to be safe than sorry even though it ended up being nothing”, said Osganian. 

The evacuation caused products to go to waste, as well as delays in Walmart employees’ shifts, but it became clear that a risk of that potential magnitude was not worth overlooking according to Osganian.

The investigation is now closed, but Osganian added that if any new information came to light they would continue working on the case.