Suspicious Package Blown Up, Turns Out To Be iPad Sent To Relative From Prison Inmate
SPRINGDALE (KDKA) -- The Allegheny County Police Bomb Squad was sent to investigate a suspicious package in Springdale on Thursday afternoon.
It all started just before 4 p.m. Homes in the 200 block of Center Street were evacuated as a safety precaution and part of the road was closed off for several hours.
The suspicious package was reportedly delivered to a home on the street. The homeowner became concerned because of the small, square package he had received in the mail.
When authorities arrived on scene, a bomb squad robot was sent to check out the package.
"I got the package from UPS. I took it into the house. It said it was from the town of Albion. I got a family member who lives up there, so I thought it was from them," homeowner Tom Mongol said. "I opened it up, and it looked like a glass case or a glass box with a bunch of wiring all through it and some gadgets connected to it and stuff. And it didn't look right, so I threw it out on the back porch and I called the police."
The suspicious package turned out to be harmless, a small iPad, which a bomb squad technician detonated nearby in a high school football field.
Suspicious package Springdale home owner got in the mail today was small IPad mailed from State Prison near Erie pic.twitter.com/KM3KgFqdda
— Ralph Iannotti (@IannottiRalph) June 22, 2017
Mangol said the package was sent to him by a relative who's now locked up in a state prison outside Erie.
He told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti, "According to the ATF guys, it is an iPad from a state prison. It has to be clear and everything so they know they're not smuggling anything in or out."
Mangol went on to say he gets a letter from his relative about once a month.
"We never got any letter saying he was sending it, nothing. It was like, it was a shock to us," he said.
Residents were allowed back into their homes around 6 p.m.
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