Old Trafford “Bomb” Was a Fake, a Training Exercise Leftover

Well this is embarrassing now, isn’t it? Manchester United’s Old Trafford Stadium went into crisis mode today, as an “incredibly lifelike” device was discovered in a stadium toilet and the whole stadium was evacuated on the final day of the Premier League. It turns out, according to Associated Press reporter Rob Harris, the device that caused such a gigantic security concern? Well, it was planted by law enforcement officials themselves. As a fake. For an exercise. A while back.

No one is going to be happy about this one—particularly because officials at Old Trafford called in the army, bomb squads, the fire department, ambulances, and sniffing dogs to handle the situation. They even detonated the device under controlled circumstances to make sure that it wasn’t a threat to the stadium. Oh, and then there’s the fact that there were difficulties rescheduling the game due to Manchester United’s appearance in the FA Cup on Saturday (the season-closing match against Bournemouth is set for Tuesday instead).

Don’t get us wrong—it’s important to make sure that any potential danger was handled as carefully as possible. It’s a good thing these procedures were followed—there were even reports that said the evacuation was handled professionally and efficiently by all. But it’s hard not to chuckle (or at least guffaw) at the fact that this whole thing could have been avoided by someone (hypothetically named Jim) who was thorough enough to not leave fake bombs lying around after an exercise.

We’ll keep you updated with any more levity/relief that is surely to come.

UPDATE/Correction:

(6:00pm)

According to The Guardian, the device was left not by law enforcement officials, but rather an external company hired to train explosive sniffing dogs. The Manchester police commissioner had a few words on the incident:

Also, here’s a pretty choice quote from the Guardian,

“It sums up our season, that. Just fizzling out — something and nothing,” said Matt Crew, who had come up for the match from Leek in Staffordshire.