Box prompts bomb scare

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Dreamworks Animation employees were allowed back to work Wednesday more than two hours after a suspicious package turned out to be a gift from overseas, police said.

Bomb investigators opened the package and discovered a gift intended for someone at the studio, Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

“It was not a bomb,” he said. “It was not a practical joke.”

Soon after discovering the package was not a threat, about 40 Dreamworks employees who had to stand outside in the rain were allowed to enter the building on Flower Street and Grandview Avenue.

They had been evacuated from the campus after Dreamworks security officials received a cardboard box at their loading dock, Lorenz said.

The package was banged up and the mailing address was unidentifiable, Lorenz said.

“They have a very high security system here,” he said. “They double check many of the packages coming in. Packages that they are not familiar with [and] they didn’t expect to arrive, they will send through a second set of screening.”

Unable to identify the box, security officials called police at 12:05 p.m. and evacuated employees from the building.

Tommy Mora, a Dreamworks employee, returned from lunch with co-workers to find police barricades.

“I thought it had something to do with new building,” he said.

Authorities said they took extra precautions due to recent terrorist threats, including a failed bombing aboard a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight Christmas day.

“With everything going on that we have been seeing in the news and around the world, obviously there is a heightened sense . . . and the CEO members of Dreamworks are well known throughout the world, so [they are] a target that can be victimized,” Lorenz said. “We are going to make sure that does not happen.”