Unknown event in Florida, West Palm Beach area, United States of America on Tue 2nd January 2024

Traffic snarled for more than an hour Tuesday at the busy intersection of South Dixie Highway and Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach during a bomb scare investigation where "a device" was removed by Palm Beach County Sheriff's office specialists.

City of West Palm Beach Police spokesperson Mike Jachles said someone driving by called the police after seeing the suspicious item on the sidewalk near the Marathon Gas station at 4000 South Dixie Highway at about 11 a.m.

"They did the right thing, and we closed off the intersection," Jachles said.

West Palm Beach police asked the sheriff's office bomb squad for assistance. The bomb squad took the pipe-looking device away for further investigation.

"They said they would let us know in a couple days exactly what it is," Jachles said.

The incident sparked a measure of anxiety in the area during busy lunchtime traffic. West Palm Beach police sent a social media post around noon saying to avoid the area while they investigated a possible explosive device.

Employees of the Walgreens on the southwest corner of Dixie and Southern were evacuated while police conducted a sweep of the area that also shut down all traffic in at least a block radius around the possible threat zone.

Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club is about 1 mile east of the intersection of Southern and Dixie, and the crossing is along the route taken by his motorcade when he travels from Palm Breach International Airport to the club.

Some neighbors watching the scene unfold from Malverne Road said they didn't know anything was amiss until they walked out of their front doors to see yellow police tape blocking their street.

"We were going to go down to Fort Lauderdale to shop and go to the beach," said Eddie Garza, who was visiting from Michigan and staying at a short-term rental on Malverne. "I don't know if that's happening now."

Police said in the tweet that Dixie Highway was closed from Nottingham Road to Walton Boulevard; Southern Boulevard was closed from Lake to Olive avenues. As a result, there was heavy traffic on Dixie Highway that caused back-ups and delays.

Remote-control robotic bomb detection devices were sent into the area where the device was found but Jachles didn't know how they were used, if at all.