Suspected Bomb Turns Out To Contain Chicken Stew

A suspected pressure cooker bomb left at a truck parking area on Interstate 80 in Sweetwater County on Monday turned out to be harmless, according to a spokesman for the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Department.

Dick Blust says a pressure cooker was spotted at the parking area along the eastbound lane of I-80 at about 35 miles east of Rock Spring.

The object raised concerns because pressure cooker bombs have been used by terrorists for many years, including in the 2006 attack in Mumbai, India which killed over 200 people. More recently such bombs were used in the Boston Marathon bombing  and in another attack last month in New Jersey which left 29 people injured.

Trooper Barry Tippy of the Wyoming Highway Patrol was sent to investigate the object at around 3:30 p.m. He sent photographs of the object to the bomb squad, which was concerned because the cooker appeared to have a wire or chord attached to it.

Bomb squad members from the Rock Springs Police Department, Green River Police Department, and Sweetwater County Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene and deployed a pair of bomb disposal robots.

One of the robots used special tools to open the pressure cooker. It turned out the cooker contained no explosives, but instead what was believed to be chicken stew.

It isn't known why the cooker was left in the area with the food inside. Even though the cooker turned out to be harmless, Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell said reporting the object to law enforcement was the right thing to do, since pressure cooker bombs are a common terrorist weapon.

He said anyone who spots a possible bomb shouldn't try to move the device or even touch it. He says the thing to do in such situations is "Move at least several hundred yards away, and then notify authorities."