The object was located at around 9:55 a.m., police said. Buildings along the block were evacuated while the Marquette Police Department assessed the situation.

A photograph shared by the department on Facebook shows the object in question resting atop a FedEx receptacle in front of the Federal Building. Police said in a news release the object was later determined to not be a threat. MPD Detective Capt. Greg Kinonen confirmed to The Mining Journal that the object was a document container commonly used on different types of trailers.

Kinonen said the object was initially reported as a pipe bomb, noting that while the public may look back and view the incident as humorous, police responded to the matter appropriately.

“It wasn’t a laughing matter at the time it was reported as a pipe bomb,” he said. “We get there to make sure and verify it’s not. Just because it turned out to be a document container doesn’t mean somebody couldn’t put an explosive device inside of there. We had the K-9 dog check it and that’s how we verified that it was not an explosive device.”

The 200 block of West Washington Street in downtown Marquette was evacuated on Tuesday morning after a suspicious object, pictured, was found in front of the Federal Building, which houses the United States Postal Service and the U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan Courthouse. Police gave the “all clear” to business employees and patrons just before 11 a.m. Police determined the object was a document container commonly used on trailers. (Photo from Marquette Police Department Facebook)

Police secured a perimeter in the downtown area and rerouted traffic as precautionary measures. While the 200 block of Washington Street was the only block to be evacuated, Kinonen said the 100 and 300 blocks were also put on notice but not requested to evacuate.

Police gave the “all clear” just prior to 11 a.m. with employees and patrons of businesses in the vicinity returning to the block as MPD continued to investigate.

Kinonen said that MPD is trained for various types of threat situations similar to Tuesday’s.

“Essentially what it boils down to is incident command training,” he said. “We know how to evacuate, to cordon off areas, set up a command structure and just knowing who to contact with incidents like these. There’s no way to know every type of explosive device that could be out there, which is why we have to err on the side of caution.”

Kinonen reminded the public that all threats should be taken seriously, as they may not always be false alarms.

“The reason they should be (taken seriously) is because we don’t actually know if it’s an explosive device or not,” he said. “We do not want to see citizens in our jurisdiction, or any other jurisdiction get injured due to lack of responding. It’s something we have to make sure of and verify. It may cause an inconvenience for a couple of hours, but it’s better safe than sorry.”

Assisting the Marquette Police Department at the scene were the Northern Michigan University Police Department, the Michigan State Police, the Marquette City Fire Department and the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office.

Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is rspitza@miningjournal.net.