This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Troopers in Wyoming are stewing over a discovery made Monday along Interstate 80: What they thought was a pressure-cooker bomb turned out to be a menacing container of chicken soup.
The sheriff's office in Sweetwater County, which shares a border with northeastern Utah, responded to a call of a suspicious item about 3:30 p.m., according to a news release from the department. A trooper found an upright pressure cooker at a truck parking area near mile marker 142 on I-80.
The object "appeared to have a wire or cord attached to it," the release states, and a bomb squad sent two robots to inspect it. When a robot opened the lid of the pressure cooker, squad members "discovered that the contents were probably chicken stew."
Troopers closed I-80 briefly during the situation. The department was on high alert after the recent pressure-cooker bombing in New York and a pipe bomb that was found in New Jersey earlier this month.
Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office advises people to stay at least several hundred yards away from any suspicious bomb-like item and call police: "Don't touch it, don't attempt to move it and don't approach it."
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