SAUGUSÂ —Â A pressure cooker that looks like it was used to cook beans was the source of a bomb scare in Saugus Monday morning.
Saugus police Lt. Ronald Giorgetti said police responded to the Rite Aid off of Route 1 South at around 7:10 a.m. Monday after a caller reported she found a pressure cooker inside a trash barrel. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad responded and with the use of a robot, determined the pressure cooker was not dangerous.
Giorgetti said it turned out to be a discarded pressure cooker that had been used to “cook some sort of beans.”
Photos provided by Saugus Police show what appears to be burned residue and beans stuck to the bottom of the pressure cooker.
Giorgetti said a portion of the parking lot was closed and access restricted to the parking lot. After the pressure cooker was declared safe, police cleared the scene at around 9:30 a.m.
Giorgetti said the caller had the right intentions of reporting the pressure cooker and urged the public to report suspicious items, but noted “discarding or disposing of items such as a pressure cooker in a trash receptacle clearly visible to public is irresponsible.”
“This particular incident caused a disruption to area business and unnecessary allocation of resources to analyze/examine the article,” said Giorgetti.
In June, portions of the Square One Mall were evacuated after a pressure cooker was found in the parking lot. The bomb squad determined that pressure cooker was also empty.
