Military personnel and local law enforcement partners have a man in custody after he reportedly drove up to the Joint Base Andrews gate in Maryland and told security he had a bomb in his vehicle, The Hill reported Friday.
According to the report, the man approached the gate at the military base at 4:45 p.m. and then told security forces he had a bomb in his car.
Security forces then closed the main gate and cleared personnel from the area, following established procedures, officials told WUSA9 news.
The man was taken into custody and questioned by military officials on the base and Prince George’s County Police, according to the report.
Officials said bomb-sniffing dogs were used in an initial sweep of the area.
Video taken by the television station shows a robotic device exploring the car, but officials said they did not find any devices.
The gate and roads near the base were reopened by about 8:19 p.m., the report said.
No further information about the incident was available.
The station reported, however, that a different man drove his car into the gate in March.
In that incident, a 29-year-old man collided with one of the swing arm barriers with his Ford F-150 truck around 1:25 p.m. on March 6.
U.S. Air Force forces placed mechanical barriers on the road causing the man to veer off and hit a fence in the perimeter of the base, a spokesman for the base said at the time.
The spokesperson told the news agency that the man appeared to be under the influence of an illegal substance and drug paraphernalia was found in the vehicle.
He faces federal charges and was also turned over to local law enforcement for civilian charges, the spokesperson said.
In another security breach incident in February, The Hill reported that a man, identified as Joseph Armstrong, 36, was apparently allowed to ”roam unencumbered” around the base for several hours and board a plane meant for ”senior government officials.”
Armstrong gained access to the base when a guard did not properly check his credentials before allowing him to enter, according to the report.
”There were three layers of breakdowns,” Air Force IG Lt. Gen. Sami Said told reporters at the time. ”The first one, the one that really should have stopped this ball from rolling in the first place, is obviously the gate [where] we had a security forces airman. They were distracted and did not follow a procedure.”
Following the incident, Joint Base Andrews tightened its security, with new measures including adding more security patrols, the report said.
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Source: Newmax
