A bag of trash placed suspiciously against the front door of the Wells Fargo bank in Cumru Township resulted in police closing parts of Lancaster Avenue and the entrances to Shillington Shopping Center on Monday morning while a bomb squad examined the contents.
The bag, which had odd, nonsensical writings referencing money, was discovered shortly before 9 a.m. as employees were arriving for work at 1700 E. Lancaster Ave., Police Chief Madison Winchester said. It was deemed suspicious enough for officers to request the Reading Police Bomb, he said.
The bomb squad determined the bag contained no explosives.
“It turned out to be just trash and rubbish,” Winchester said. “We’re still working to determine who placed the bag there.”
Out of an abundance of caution, the chief said, police cordoned the vicinity of the bank including the front part of the shopping center lot and side streets with access to the center for about an hour.
Bank employees were directed to an area a safe distance away. The stores within the center, including a Giant grocery store, were not evacuated because police believed they had effectively isolated the situation to the front portion of the lot, Winchester said.
Although it was a major disruption for motorists and those who patronize the stores, the emergency incident was cleared within an hour, he said.