Box of underwear mistaken for bomb

Box of underwear mistaken for bomb

DENPASAR, Bali: Dozens of police officers and bystanders became extremely nervous when a bomb squad began to open a cardboard box they suspected to contain explosives.

As the bomb squad finally opened the box, there was a smattering of laughter as the 30 cm by 30 cm package contained nothing more harmful than women's underwear and compact discs.

The box was delivered by a man named I Gede Wijaya, 45, to the Diponegoro police post at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. The frightened man told officers on duty that he thought the box, which was delivered by an unidentified female to his surprised daughter at around 7:30 a.m., may have contained a bomb.

The police treated the box with great care and immediately called in the bomb squad.

Several hours after everything was declared safe and the curious bystanders had left, a woman, Ni Putu Pariani, 26, an acquaintance of Wijaya, came to the police post to pick up her box.

Pariani, who knows Wijaya, but not his daughter had dropped the box off with the daughter without any explanation, because she could not carry it to an important appointment.

"I was in a hurry I did not have time to tell her (Wijaya's daughter) who I was," Pariani told the police. -- Antara