The St. Paul Police Department Bomb Squad was called to Prescott, Wis., on Sunday to disable an explosive device left near the city's post office.
Around 9:55 a.m., Prescott police were notified of a suspicious object left on Campbell Street near the Prescott postal station. An improvised explosive device was disabled sometime after the squad arrived at the scene around 1:20 p.m., authorities said.
Prescott Police Chief Eric Michaels said the device was not positioned directly in front of the post office, but rather in a residential area near it, which is also near a school.
However, he said the department is "well aware of everything going on with the post office" in terms of the ongoing controversy surrounding mail-in voting and funding of the U.S. Postal Service.
"It's definitely an angle we'll look into," he said.
Michaels said while "people were saying that this just looked like a firework," there was substantial reason to believe it was not.
"It's quite unusual to have that happen on any day here in Prescott," he said, adding that it's the city's first bomb threat that he's aware of.
Michaels said his department will conduct its own investigation before passing along information to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to see if the federal agency will investigate.
The residential area was blocked off and evacuated for several hours. Displaced residents were allowed to return after the bomb was detonated and the area was deemed safe.
An employee of Churchill Market, a nearby grocery store, who also lives in the neighborhood, said the store wasn't evacuated, but employees had to shelter in place until about 2 p.m.
Kim Hyatt • 612-673-475p
