By Charles Lefebvre

Suspicious package briefly closes hospital parking lot Friday morning

Aug 31, 2018 | 3:59 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Emergency crews were called to deal with a suspicious package outside of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital Friday morning.

Crews were called at approximately 10:30 a.m., after a staff member at the hospital noticed an unusual item in the parking lot near the emergency area that had been run over and was leaking a white powder.

The lot was blocked off for roughly 30 minutes while police and firefighters investigated.

Captain Nolan Osadczuk with the Medicine Hat Fire Service says the item in question posed no risk to the public.

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“It was a Red Bull can that was used to disguise a container to hide contraband in,” he said. “It was probably something that someone had left behind and someone drove over it and it exploded, and it was a white powder surrounding it.”

Osadczuk says the police service helped identify the item quickly, avoiding a prolonged closure of the parking lot.

“We could have locked that parking lot down for three, four hours just to figure out it was a can full of plaster,” he said. “But, we had some photos of it, and city police recognized it right away, so it was nice to get it wrapped up quick.”