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Plumbing Tool Prompts City Hall Evacuation
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 2:43 PM PDT
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A suspicious item was found in a planter near the visitors' entrance of Los Angeles City Hall Monday, prompting the evacuation of the first three floors of the historic building for about 45 minutes before police determined the item was a harmless plumbing tool.
Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Robert Payan said a green plastic box with red and green LED lights was found in a planter near the Main Street entrance of the building around 1:15 p.m.
Main Street was closed between First and Temple streets, and police cleared a roughly 350-foot area around the device. City Councilmen Bernard Parks and Greig Smith were among those evacuated.
At about 2 p.m., police determined that the device was an electronic pipe-finder used in plumbing work, and the evacuation order was lifted.
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