Brunette Avenue between Schoolhouse Street and Laurentian Crescent was shutdown for more than four hours Wednesday morning while the Coquitlam RCMP investigated a suspicious package.
The item turned out to be a homemade metal prop that was about 30 cm long with fins and a tip that looked like a mortar or an explosive. RCMP Cpl. Michael McLaughlin said the package looked real enough that investigators had to take it seriously.
"These are metal parts," he said. "It is not difficult to imagine that this could have contained some kind of real charge."
Roads were shutdown and nearby apartments were evacuated shortly after 7:15 a.m.
The provincial Explosives Disposal Service was called in to investigate. They sent a remote-controlled camera up to the device, which was lying on some grass on the side of the street. An officer at the scene said they would be pouring water on the package.
By 12:30 p.m., police determined that the item was not a danger and people were allowed to return to their homes and traffic resumed moving through the area.
McLaughlin said people who build these kinds of items need to be careful where they leave them, adding the object did not "appear to be associated with any criminal intent."
“This is a reminder for everyone who owns realistic-looking explosives or firearms props, models, or similar items. You have to be very careful about leaving them in public”, said Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Michael McLaughlin. “This object was obviously home-made, but it looked similar to a real explosive and it had to be taken seriously. The result was a big inconvenience to anyone who lives or works nearby."
