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Suspicious package blocks part of Coffee Road

From staff reports
Published: August 4, 2008

Lynchburg Police responded Monday night to a call about a suspicious package at the intersection of Boonsboro and Coffee roads.

Officer C.L. Deaner said a call was made at 8:14 p.m. about the package. Upon arriving, Lynchburg Police called in the state bomb squad and closed off Coffee Road from Boonsboro to Stillhouse Run.

At about 11:30 p.m., the bomb squad performed a disruption shot, which effectively opens up the package to determine what is inside. Deaner, who couldn’t release details about what was on the package, said nothing was inside.

Lynchburg Police are investigating.

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( formerlbc ) on August 10, 2008 at 10:10 am

just a thought - bomb-makers don’t usually tend to mark their products with “bomb” on the outside. Contrary to popular belief, they also don’t tend to have a large digital readout with the exact time til detonation either. In fact, the olympic park bombing in ‘96 was an ordinary backpack with no visible “bomb” markings. Have fun with your 15 minutes of fame, ldy, but I don’t really think it’s a product of some rambling gang of satanic kids with a grudge against boy scouts or autistic/ADD kids. Probably a couple of kids who were bored out of their minds and thought it was funny. No, I don’t think this excuses it, but you might want to think about it from the perspective of whoever pulled the prank - now that the incident is over, they’re getting their kicks from you that continue to flip out about it.

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Posted by ( Freedom ) on August 06, 2008 at 5:15 pm

,,IDY,,no i would,nt take that chance either,,if i saw something that had writing on it claiming that a bomb was inside,,i to would have called the police,,and warning everyone around about the danger and blocking traffic ,,until police arive(something i learned as a SCOUT and taught as an assistant Scoutmaster),,,and we must remember the police are human (not gods)an make mistake also,,like stating that this was a waste of money and resources,,i,m sure if this were in front of their police station,,they would have done the very same thing ,,and as far as resources ,,what do they call all them airport testing and homeland security testing thing ,,involving all city emerg.workers(hospitals),,a waste of time/money..ahh for that they should look at this as a test,,and as far as tieing up cops that could have been downtown,,well, were they like most of our city workers,,,ahh ,1 working and 5 standing around looking at the 1 working,,this city dose seam to overkill,,i,ve seen finder benders w/2 fire trucks/2-emt- 3 cop cars,,so i would,nt let their statements irk you ,,just remind them of their oath (scout)they take to protect and serve us the public,,anyway i still say its some skinny kid that no-one has anything to do with,,mostlikely told by his parents what an evil ,bad person he is ,,thus looking for his satan on the internet and acting out,,,and living right there in the coffie rd area..

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Posted by ( ldy_solana ) on August 06, 2008 at 12:47 pm

not sure why last response didn’t come through but to say its a waste of resource is wrong. isn’t something like this better err on the side of caution. we have been there 2 1/2 years and have not see random boxes thrown out of cars. its like saying the parent who say a ROTC gun,thought it was real,called the cops etc wasted time. only to have a few months later be it a real weapon situation at Glass. nobody calls 911 for garbage but we do when we saw what we saw on that box. i don’t think it was right to say my husband did the wrong thing, b/c if it was real than you would be the same person to say “why didn’t anybody call the cops”. as for the gang thing whether or not its a “bigger” issue elsewhere or not is irrelevant. its time to nip it in the bud now before it does get out of hand. no matter what drugs,gangs,violence, and anything of the like is unacceptable. try coming to my end of rivermont and tell me if you feel safe when fights breakout. just b/c you don’t see it on the news doesn’t mean nothing happened.

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Posted by ( LynchburgRes ) on August 06, 2008 at 9:21 am

While “formerlbc” may wish to stick his/her head in the sand and pretend that Lynchburg doesn’t have an issue with gang related problems, I can’t help but read what’s online and look around me and see what could be n the way. Yes, I agree that Lynchburg is still way better than any of the major metropolitan areas, we can not sleep until organized crime is knocking in our front doors.
While Lynchburg sleeps, read some of the following links to real news articles that are recent and relevant. Reflect on this question, “If there is no gang problem in Lynchburg, why did my son, while attending Dunbar Middle School, went to a week long summer workshop on, (guess what it was...) resisting gang violence and not becoming a member”? Why did a lady who appeared to be a community leader get up and talk about gangs and how to tell if your child is involved?
Anyway, read on here, and if you like you head in the sand, of course don’t click on any of the following links…

http://lynchburgvirginia.blogspot.com/2005/07/gangs-write-their-signature-across.html

http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/news/headlines/18152184.html

hmmmm… second generation gang members in Lynchburg… shake the sand out of your ears formerlbc

http://www.wset.com/news/stories/0808/541379.html

Here’s the story if you are too scared to click on the link…

Whether they’re wearing red, blue, black or white, police say gangs are in Lynchburg. Monday night, they held a gang update session for neighborhood watch groups. Officers say they’re starting to see second generation gang members.

They say there are 46 gangs in Central Virginia and you can see their covered-up graffiti on several buildings. It’s like a gang’s message board. Investigators say they’ve been doing more than spray-painting, gang members seem to be getting more violent.

Officer Kevin Pointdexter, Lynchburg Police (web) Department - “People are starting to get a bit more trigger happy with their guns. As opposed to a couple years ago it use to be just a fist fight, now we’re starting to see people getting shot at.”

Michael Neal, Lynchburg - “It bothers me. I worry about my family, the safety of my family. Yes, it does bother me.”

If you want to report gang activity to Lynchburg Police, call 434-847-1602.

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Posted by ( ldy_solana ) on August 06, 2008 at 8:46 am

freedom, we are a small group not many know about us but its no big secret that boy scouts meet at churches. most troops we know of hold meetings in bigger churches off the road more with front yards. this church on a corner with not much of a yard. i am,however, inclined to agree that a stupid kid saw an opportunity. if our scouts weren’t out there they would have hit another place. so many possibilities but like i have said before, do you want to take chances?

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Posted by ( ldy_solana ) on August 06, 2008 at 8:26 am

okay formerlbc, so what if the “gang"activity is 1% of the city. nobody made this a black and white issue so thank you for showing your side of what we think. being on rivermont ave its all kinds but the drugs and the weapons,it has to stop whether its what your definition of “gang” or not its illegal and its not right.
and i will be certain the next time my husband sees a box with “bomb” and satanic markings on it i will be sure to tell him its the WRONG thing in your eyes by calling 911. maybe the next time it won’t be a waste of time. it wasn’t like it was a bag it was a medium sized postal box. it is a odd to throw a larger size box out in the road like that. my husband went to go pick it up out of the road when he saw what was marked on it, and with vandals hitting the churches as of late, did we really want to take a chance? so thank you my husband feels real confident now that his city neighbors feel he wasted time by calling police and of course they did routine by calling in the bomb squad. be sure to tell that one to channel 12 that we wasted time a stupid garbage.

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Posted by ( Freedom ) on August 05, 2008 at 7:26 pm

,,i cant help but think how odd this is,,and what are the chances of this being a ramdon event,,1/in a trillion,,i kinda think its a 16-18 yr old that may go to that church and hates it (satanic writing),,and had inside knowledge of this event or he knows the kids,,either as a neighbor or school ,,thus the pizza box,easy to hide and conceal(from family members) while decorating it up w/symbols and words,,anyway hope this helps and this DISTURBED person is caught before (he) does the real thing..

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Posted by ( formerlbc ) on August 05, 2008 at 5:26 pm

While the drive-by shootings may be gang-related, you might want to realize the scope of “gang” activity in Lynchburg. Don’t get too worked up about it, trust me - what gang activity that exists is less than one percent of the danger you’d experience in any major city, even when taking population differences into consideration. Look at the crime map if you don’t believe me I’ve lived in DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Lynchburg. Lynchburg is the safest place I’ve ever lived, bar none - for example, in two years, Philly had around 800 homicides. Lynchburg had three. Even when divided among their populations, Lynchburg’s way ahead. As for graffiti, no, it’s not all gang signs. 99.9% of it is simply kids being kids and “tagging” things like signs, walls and abandoned areas. For one thing, what is your definition of “gang”? Is it black kids standing on a corner? I’ve got news for you - most of the time, it’s the rich white kids vandalizing property. Black kids standing on a corner is just that - people standing on a corner. While there might be a couple of thug wanna-be’s in Lynchburg, trust me, you HAVEN’T seen real gang activity. If you want to use what crime fighting resources Lynchburg has wisely, I’d suggest foregoing calling the police and simply taking pictures of graffiti and either scrubbing it off or painting over. Real gang signs aren’t so predominant, when they claim their territory, they don’t HAVE to mark it. You’ll know. If you do remove graffiti immediately, they stop trying to tag it eventually.
As for the “suspicious package”...Having grown up on that EXACT stretch of Coffee Rd, I KNOW that people frequently speed down that road and toss all kinds of stuff out their car windows. Boxes, bags, packages, whatever. While I understand that this is a scary time to live in, maybe you might want to use a LITTLE common sense before calling out the SWAT team for a McDonald’s bag. It wastes police resources, and Coffee Rd residents just might find themselves getting slower response times in the future when police keep having to come out with guns blazing for an innocent litter toss.

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Posted by ( LynchburgRes ) on August 05, 2008 at 8:03 am

The drive by shootings are most likely gang related. Look around you at the vacant buildings, road signs, overpasses and see the graffiti. Most of that is gang signs.
Gangs have moved past the big cities and are even turning up in rural areas of the country. Lynchburg is no different.
While it’s hard to say if the box left on the road was a gang related prank, it could have been. If you see graffiti painted anywhere, call the police non-emergency line and get someone to take it down. Once it’s up, it becomes a sign to others that this is a safe place to be active.

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Posted by ( ldy_solana ) on August 05, 2008 at 7:56 am

i am one of the den leaders that was inside at the time. all our bigger boy scouts were doing was learning to pitch tents for their camp out coming up. they saw these kids and still did what they did. we have kids with autism,adhd, and some with physical disabilities. we have our group to give our kids a safe environment and to try to do activities other kids get to do. its shame! what do you have against the kids??! you cowardly gutless scum do have a clue how these kids felt last night, how my husband who was outside at the time feels?? was it worth it you coward? this city is in the grip of thugs and stupidity and its got to stop. i am planning to attend the Love Walk to show these scum this family is not going to be your victim and you are not going to scare me out of my home!!

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