Ticking Package Found in Mailbox Turns Out to Be Clock

A suspicious ticking sound coming from a U.S. Postal Service mailbox near downtown drew out a bomb squad, but ended up being an old-fashioned ticking clock, police said.

A pedestrian heard a ticking sound inside the mailbox, ironically in front of a UPS building on James M. Wood Boulevard and Blaine Street, and phoned police around 6:50 a.m., said Lt. Orlando Chandler of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.

Police closed down streets one block in each direction and evacuated the UPS building while the bomb squad conducted its investigation, Chandler said. There were no residential evacuations.

The investigation later found the ticking to be coming from "some kind of alarm clock," Chandler said.

Police cleared and left the scene by 8:45 a.m., he said.

—City News Service