By Maryclaire Dale, The Associated Press
Philadelphia (AP) -- An electronic motion detection device was found in a rail yard last week, raising suspicions, but officials said they found no evidence of any terrorist link.
The device was turned over to the FBI.
No arrests have been made and no extra security precautions have been taken, in part because rail officials were already on high alert because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the March 11 train bombing in Spain that killed 191 people.
“If somebody leaves a briefcase, we call the bomb squad,” said Jim Whitaker, a spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.
A SEPTA police officer spotted the small device May 5 in a west Philadelphia rail yard where trains are stored. Tracks that carry commuter trains are nearby, but there is no passenger station in the area, Whitaker said. SEPTA turned over the item to police, then to the FBI May 12.
The discovery never caused any delays, and trains were running on schedule Friday, the transportation authority said.
Although the device is sold in stores, its presence in a rail yard made FBI agents somewhat suspicious, FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams said. She said the device was being tested for fingerprints, but otherwise declined to elaborate.
“We know that it’s a commercial motion detector,” Williams said Friday. “We’re attempting to find out what the device is, why it was there and who put it there.”
Meanwhile, Amtrak stopped and searched three trains Thursday night, including a pair of Acela Express high-speed trains traveling from New York to Washington, D.C.
Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said the trains were searched “as a precaution” based on an anonymous threat called into Baltimore police. Nothing was found.