A bomb squad technician was seen emptying the contents of a blue backpack outside a Truist Bank in Wilton Manors on Friday, as law enforcement shut down a stretch of Northeast 26th Street and set up a command post near the busy Five Points intersection. The suspicious package was found near a Starbucks and the bank in the 1500 block of Northeast 26th Street, and officials have not said what, if anything, was found inside.
According to WSVN 7News, a bicycle and the blue backpack were left on the ground outside the Truist Bank, and officials believe the items may be related to the suspicious package, though that connection has not been confirmed. The station's aerial unit, 7SkyForce, captured footage of a bomb squad technician entering the bank as law enforcement maintained a heavy presence outside the neighboring Starbucks. Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue also responded to the scene, a routine arrangement given that the department provides fire, emergency medical, and emergency management services to Wilton Manors under contract, according to the City of Fort Lauderdale.
Street Closure Hits a Key Traffic Artery
The city of Wilton Manors announced that Northeast 26th Street is closed between Five Points Plaza on North Dixie Highway and Northeast 16th Avenue, per the same WSVN report, and urged residents to avoid the area while motorists seek alternate routes. The closure cuts through one of the city's most heavily traveled junctions. Five Points Plaza, anchored by a Publix shopping center and major retail banks, sits at the intersection of North Dixie Highway, Wilton Drive, and Northeast 26th Street and carries an estimated 39,300 vehicles a day, according to Crossman & Company.
That traffic sensitivity is compounded by the city's small footprint. Wilton Manors is a 1.95-square-mile municipality entirely surrounded by Fort Lauderdale and bounded on all sides by the Middle River, with a population of roughly 11,400 to 12,000 residents, per Paradise Vacation Suites. Any major closure near Five Points tends to ripple across the compact city known locally as the Island City, a dynamic also visible during the annual Wicked Manors festival, when Wilton Drive closes from Northeast 20th Street down to the same intersection, according to event organizers at Wicked Manors.
Specialized Bomb Squad Resources Deployed
The response draws on the Broward Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad, a federally accredited explosive disposal unit that serves every municipality in the county and logged 220 deployments in 2020, equipped with specialized K-9 units and technician X-ray equipment for examining hazardous materials, per records reviewed by Miami-Dade County. This is not the first time such resources have been called to Wilton Manors. In October 2022, an hours-long bomb threat and standoff at a dental office near Northeast 25th Street and 9th Avenue forced evacuations and shelter-in-place orders before the suspect was taken into custody and the threat declared a hoax, as CBS News reported at the time.
Suspicious package calls elsewhere in Broward County have followed a similar playbook. In August 2019, Fort Lauderdale Police and Fire Rescue units responded to a suspicious package investigation at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse that was ultimately cleared as a false alarm, according to a report from WSVN at the time. Wilton Manors has also seen other recent large-scale police operations; Hoodline reported in August that Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors police swarmed a condo complex on North Andrews Avenue and ordered residents to shelter in place while searching for a violent crime suspect.
Potential Legal Exposure if Threat Proves a Hoax
Should investigators determine the package was left as an intentional scare, Florida law carries steep penalties. Knowingly making a false report about the placement of a bomb or explosive device is a second-degree felony under Florida Statute 790.163, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and fines reaching $10,000, and the state also allows law enforcement to recover its response costs from offenders, according to the Florida Senate. Separately, Florida Statute 790.165 classifies placing or possessing a hoax bomb device designed to resemble an explosive as a third-degree felony, carrying up to five years in state prison and fines of up to $5,000, per the Sammis Law Firm.
As of Friday, officials had not confirmed whether the backpack and bicycle belong to the same person, or whether the X-ray testing turned up anything hazardous. Law enforcement continues to hold its command post near the scene, and the Northeast 26th Street closure remains in effect while the investigation continues.
