Alert citizens of the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle watched as two young men unloaded a large box from a vehicle and placed it under the Aurora Bridge yesterday morning. From a distance, the box had what looked like two large buttons on the side of the container and was left just two blocks away from the Fremont troll attraction. One man left the scene by foot while the other man got back into his vehicle and drove away. That’s when the Seattle police got the call that a potential bomb had been placed at the base of the highway 99 bridge.
Police responded to the scene immediately with an arson squad, bomb squad, patrol boats and a camera-mounted robot. Large portions of the neighborhood were blocked off most the morning as well as a small chunk of Lake Union. When one of the men who placed the box returned, he was quite surprised at the events that took place. The 29 year old student of University of Washington had no idea that his art project would create such a stir.
The box was supposedly part of an interactive piece of artwork that was location specific. “Putting a big box right under a bridge? Yeah, you might scare some people,” police spokeswoman Renee Witt said. “He just hadn’t thought of it that way.” Shortly after the man returned to work on his project, it was declared the box was not dangerous. He and his box were released without charges and all trolls were unharmed.