'Suspicious Package' Investigation Briefly Shuts Down Ringgold Road

Traffic was briefly shut down, early Friday afternoon, as authorities checked out a “suspicious package” left outside an office.

According to East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams, authorities were called to an office building in the 4100 block of Ringgold Road across the street from the Walmart Neighborhood Market. The caller said there was a suspicious package that had been sitting on the sidewalk outside a group of office buildings for quite some time.

Contributed photo _ The “suspicious package.”

Chief Williams said an employee of a water testing service alerted authorities that he had been working in that area earlier in the day. While packing up his equipment he forgot to collect his black briefcase. Chief Williams said the man gave a detailed description of the briefcase and authorities opened the case to find it contained nothing suspicious.

Traffic was briefly diverted from Ringgold Road while law enforcement and firefighters investigated the “suspicious package.” Traffic was restored to normal by 2:15 p.m. EST.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.