A member of the Pennsylvania State Police bomb squad in a protective suit attempts to use an X-ray machine to determine the contents of a bag left ouside of Wal-Mart Monday.

CLARION, Pa., Feb. 16 — A suspicious package outside of the Clarion Wal-Mart shut down some business along Perkins Road Monday.

A state trooper helicopter comes in for a landing at the Clarion Wal-Mart. Bomb squad member inside were dropped off to begin investigating a suspicious bag outside.

Wal-Mart was evacuated around 2:30 p.m. and remained closed until 6 p.m. Taco Bell closed around 3:30 p.m. after they were told to evacuate and remained closed until Tuesday morning, according to Assistant Manager Melody Simpson.

Eat ‘n Park remained open, but customers were unable to enter the parking lot since the police and fire departments had the entrance blocked.

“The safety and security of our customers and associates is always top priority … it’s procedure to evacuate when the police are contacted,” said a spokesperson for Wal-Mart.

Monday afternoon, a customer entered the Wal-Mart, pulling a tow-along bag behind him. After spending a few minutes in the store, he left and placed the bag on a rack near the entrance with a number of propane tanks.

Wal-Mart employees who viewed the situation called the State Police (PSP) and decided to evacuate the store.

At 4:44 p.m., a helicopter carrying the PSP bomb squad landed in the store’s parking lot. Soon after, a man in a protective suit began to inspect the bag and the crowd that had gathered in the Eat ‘n Park parking lot was told to go inside or move back for safety reasons.

After the X-ray machine was unable to determine the contents of the bag due to the cold, the bag was dragged into the parking lot to be detonated in case it contained a bomb, which police did not believe to be the case.

After two detonations, the bag was blown open to discover that the contents were not dangerous.

Pa. State Police examine the reamins of the bag after it had been blown open in the store parking lot.

Officials gathered the materials from the bag into plastic bags and took them for further investigation, which is still continuing as of deadline.

Using store surveillance video, PSP were able to identify the man and found along state Route 322. Randall Carpenter, 24, of West Virginia was jailed in lieu of $30,000 bond. He was charged with facsimile weapons of mass destruction, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

On the same afternoon, rumors spread of another suspicious package being found at the Red & White store in Shippenville. This was confirmed by store employees to be false.

On Tuesday, a similar occurrence happened at a Wal-Mart just outside of Titusville. After investigation, the package was determined to be a package for a geocaching game.

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