VENTURA : CHP Calls In Bomb Squad on Suitcase

California Highway Patrol officials evacuated about 20 people from their Ventura headquarters and called the bomb squad after they discovered a suitcase near the front door Monday morning, authorities said.

Officers noticed the suitcase in front of the office in the 4600 block of Valentine Road at about 8 a.m., CHP Officer Jim Utter said. As a precautionary measure, all workers except dispatchers, who sit in the back of the building, were evacuated, Utter said.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad X-rayed the suitcase and found it empty, Utter said.

Officers obtained the owner’s name from the suitcase and located him, but he and his girlfriend, to whom he had lent the suitcase, could not explain how it got to the CHP office, Utter said.