'Suspicious' walkman device responsible for SeaBus shutdown

Better safe than sorry: Thousands of commuters were inconvenienced during Tuesday’s evening rush hour when a ‘suspicious package’ was found on SeaBus’ Burrard Beaver ferry vessel.

Just after 5 p.m., all SeaBus service was suspended and passengers were evacuated from the Lonsdale terminal in North Vancouver.

According to Transit Police media spokesperson Anne Drennan, police sweep teams later discovered that the suspicious package was in fact completely harmless: an “old style electronic music player.”

Precautionary measures were taken by SeaBus staff and Transit Police as the device was located at an “unusual spot” and “looked weird on SeaBus.”

Both a bomb sniffing dog and a bomb disposal robot were used in the investigation to determine the nature of the walkman device found under a seat.

At approximately 8:30 p.m., the situation was given an all-clear and SeaBus began to resume normal service. About 24 sailings were canceled throughout the duration of the police incident.

North Van SeaBus evacuated after “something suspicious” spotted. Could be delay of hr or more pic.twitter.com/nlhy5MMaqc

— Gord McIntyre (@gordmcintyre) March 11, 2015

#Seabus Services still cancelled due to police incident pic.twitter.com/exbGrzN2Wm

— Aidan Buckley (@AidanBuckley) March 11, 2015

@AndreaWoo and now waterfront #seabus is suspended pic.twitter.com/cTQPfT5pOm

— Ross Dixon (@wolfnbearhugger) March 11, 2015

https://twitter.com/TransLink/status/575453916432744448