The 210 Freeway in Pasadena and a Metro Gold Line station were closed for more than an hour late Wednesday morning due to a bomb squad investigation.
Authorities responded to investigate a report of a suspicious item near the 210 Freeway and Lake Avenue. A caller reported that someone in a vehicle threw the item onto the freeway east of Los Angeles.
That item turned out to be a discarded jacket next to a concrete barrier between the freeway and Metro train station.
LASD Transit Policing Division spokesman Ramon Montenegro told City News Service that cameras at the Gold Line station caught a man tossing the item onto the freeway near the station. The Pasadena Star-News reported that the man was taken into custody after struggling with deputies at the nearby Memorial Park station.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNufcyrABY4The 210 Freeway, a major route through the San Gabriel Valley, was closed at Lake Avenue, and Metro's Gold Line Lake Station was closed for the investigation. Drivers and passengers could be seen walking on the freeway and taking pictures as they waited for the road to clear.
"It's become like a community out here," one driver told City News Service
Others tried to turn around and travel toward the nearest exit, adding to what was already a significant traffic mess.
A bomb squad robot was deployed to remove the jacket from near a freeway barrier before the road reopened at about 10:50 a.m.
The investigation comes one day after an uncorroborated threat that led to heightened security on Metro's Red Line. The FBI found not evidence that the threat, received through an overseas anonymous phone call to a public safety line, was credible.
