Suspicious packages found in restroom of building near Palmdale Medical Center

PALMDALE – Suspicious packages found Friday in a restroom in a building near Palmdale Regional Medical Center prompted a bomb squad call out, but no immediate evacuations.

The items were found about 4:15 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, by employees in the building in the 38600 block of Medical Center Drive, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which dispatched its Arson-Explosives Unit to investigate.

The building closed for business at 5 p.m., said Deputy Joanna Warren of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.

Neither the medical center nor a nearby senior center were evacuated, she said.

The employees who spotted the suspicious black packages reported at least one appeared to have wires coming out of it, Warren said.

The packages were eventually deemed to safe, officials said, but further information on the contents of the packages was not immediately available.