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Gene Kennedy Reporting Wasted time, wasted money. The South Salt Lake Fire Department is mad and wants its money back.
A bomb scare yesterday at Zion's Bank turned out to be a hoax. And while fire fighters are grateful everyone is okay, they say they want to be reimbursed for all the resources they used.
The fire fighters spent four hours outside the bank at 3900 S. 700 East inspecting shoe boxes left on a garbage can.
A bank employee saw the boxes along with a suspicious note that said "Look Below." So of course fire fighters took no chances.
Fire Chief Steve Foote, South Salt Lake Fire Dept: "We had to take a robot and inspect the packages. Of course we had to evacuate the area, shut down traffic." "The bank suffers, everyone suffers. Traffic suffers."
Not to mention all the manpower that was used.
Fire Chief Steve Foote / South Salt Lake Fire Dept. "People called out of their homes. These technicians are on call. Mobilize a lot of equipment. Fire trucks are on standby here so they're not available for other calls. It's thousands of dollars that are sitting here tied up."
The fire department will add up the bill and plans on charging it to whoever did this, along with a fine. That's if they can catch the person.
Investigators hope fingerprints left on the shoe boxes can lead to a suspect.
Police have checked all the bank surveillance tapes and there's no sign of the suspect. And, only adding to frustrations, this is the third incident like this in the last six to eight months.
