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Bomb squad solves beeping mystery
By MONIQUE FIELDS
© St. Petersburg Times, LARGO -- Clair Yoder heard an incessant noise as he poked his head outside long enough to pick up his Friday morning newspaper. "Beep, beep, beep." That's odd, he thought to himself. So he started to investigate. He called his wife, and they walked to the nearby home of a vacationing neighbor. They got a key, unlocked the door and stepped inside. No beep. When they re-emerged, they heard the noise coming from the neighbor's trash can. "What could be in there?" Yoder wondered. A bomb, he thought, and so he called the Largo Police Department. Officers heard it, too. They called the Bay Area Regional Bomb Squad. Members of the bomb squad heard it, too, and summoned Andros VIA, their bomb-dismantling, remote-controlled robot. Sgt. Joe Spano, a bomb technician for the state Fire Marshal's Office, was at the controls, keenly focused on the task at hand. A wrong move could jeopardize the $150,000 robot or, more important,homes near the garbage can. Andros rolled in. He knocked over the trash can, sifted through the trash and hoisted a JC Penney bag. Spano and the others were tense. They had seen training videos in which a man who touched an explosive was killed. Suddenly, the bag tore. Cups and cleaning bottles fell to the ground. Then the device. "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" Stationed in a van some 300 yards away, the men stared at an electronic screen filled with close-ups from the robot's camera. It didn't look like a bomb. It was a . . . smoke detector. The bomb technicians gave a collective sigh of relief. About 60 percent of their calls turn out this way. The rest, they're the real deal. Looking back, Yoder thinks he did the right thing. The bomb squad agrees. "If there's anything suspicious, they should call us," Spano said. "If nothing else, it's a good training day for us."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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