that's a blast

Bomb Squad Called In to Blow Up ‘Suspicious’ Sandwich

A discarded pesto sandwich was evidently no match this week for a highly trained London bomb squad. Following reports of a “suspicious” package at a bus stop, police blocked off a section of Borough High Street south of the Thames River so a team could methodically investigate, trapping bystanders in a Sainsbury’s grocery store and nearby pub. According to observers, the squad then proceeded to carry out a “controlled explosion” on the package.

Once they realized it wasn’t an IED, the squad probably breathed a sigh of relief and packed it in. Unsurprisingly, a detonation in London’s streets still piqued a lot of interest in people passing by. Twitter user @nfkadam, who’d already spotted the police tape, wandered over to get a closer glimpse, and this is what greeted him where the fishy brown paper bag once was:

The wrapper had the words “Gentlemen Baristas” on it, which suggests it came from the sandwich shop with that name, which is located literally around the corner from Borough. Debris from the food, whose owner is still at large, could be seen on windows, and even running up the sides of adjacent building walls. According to a statement police gave to Metro, it took them 85 minutes of careful work before agreeing the item was sufficiently “non-suspicious” and deciding they could probably go ahead and stand down.

Bomb Squad Called In to Blow Up ‘Suspicious’ Sandwich