Denver bomb squad defeats 8" toy robot after hours-long standoff

By Cory Doctorow at 2:26 am Tuesday, Dec 7

Denver police stopped rushhour traffic near Coors Field for hours yesterday last week because they were scared that a tiny, 8" tall toy robot that someone had glued to the sidewalk was a bomb. They used a bomb-squad robot to blow it up, just to be on the safe side.

"Are you serious?" asked Denver resident Justin Kent, 26, when police stopped him from proceeding down 20th Street. Kent said that he lived just past the closed area, but was told he would have to go around via Park Avenue.

"I can't believe it. This is ridiculous," said Kent.

Traffic piled up at adjacent intersections as rush hour commuters were forced to detour around the closure...

A bomb squad robot was sent it to examine the troublesome robot before a bomb squad officer, dressed in heavy protective gear, took a turn.

[Denver Police Spokesman Matt] Murray said that the bomb squad couldn't be sure if the robot was safe or not, and so remotely detonated it at about 5:30 p.m. to "render it safe." The robot exploded into several chunks.

"It was cemented in. That's odd," Murray said.

Toy robot detours traffic near Coors Field (Thanks, LostMachine, via Submitterator)

(Image: thumbnail of larger photo by RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)