Police respond to reports of a suspicious package at the Walmart on Route 29 in Albemarle County.
Walmart employees standing in parking lot as police investigate.
Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation unloading bomb robot.The Walmart on Route 29 in Albemarle County is open after a wild day for employees, police and shoppers.
Friday morning, the store was evacuated and police called in the bomb squad after someone made a 911 call about a suspicious man with a package.
Albemarle County police responded to a call of a suspicious male wearing a motorcycle helmet with a package in hand around 11:07 Friday morning. Walmart staff decided to evacuate the building and employees waited outside as a sweep was done.
A K9 unit did an initial sweep of the store, and Virginia State Police also assisted with the investigation, bringing in a robot to X-ray the package before a secondary sweep was done.
Sergeant Darrell Byers of the Albemarle County Police Department said, "To my knowledge there have not been overt threats as it relates to explosive devices or anything like that or to anyone for that matter, but we continue to investigate."
The suspect was detained at the scene and is Albemarle County police custody.
Authorities reviewed store footage to get a better look at what exactly the suspect was doing.
"It appears as if he walked through several sections of the store, obviously displaying some suspicious behavior and that is what alerted someone to call 911." Byers said. "Initially it was thought that he was wearing a gas mask, but after looking at the video surveillance, it looks like he may have had a motorcycle helmet on, so that's some of the information we've been able to clarify."
Police say the man they questioned is being evaluated by mental health clinicians.
The all clear came around 3:45 Friday afternoon.
Albemarle County police didn't go into details about what was in the package, but did confirm it was not an explosive.
