ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) – On January 3 of this year, a man walked into the Carolina First Bank in Rock Hill and demanded money. The thing is, he didn't have a gun, but showed a box with a cell phone taped to it and told tellers it was a bomb.
In minutes the Rock Hill Police Bomb squad was on the scene.
"Until we can prove it's not a bomb we're going to consider it a bomb," said Tim Marquez Rock Hill Police Bomb Squad commander.
This time the suspect was caught and the bomb was a determined to be a fake.
The six member Rock Hill Bomb squad is made up of officers with different law enforcement back grounds.
All are trained at the FBI Hazardous Device School in Alabama and work with the latest in high tech detection devices
"With bomb squads we're all trained the same way on the same equipment," said Marquez.
The team can deploy robots to check out suspicious packages. However when the team needs to get a closer eye on a package, someone suits up in a special bomb suit, best known as a Hurt Locker and head down range.
"The thing I love about being a bomb guy is you know we don't have to go rushing in kicking the door in, we can slow down, think about what we have in front of us and then we can make it go away," said Marquez.
And yes the team practice making things go away too. They use explosives to practice at the Rock Hill Police Department bomb range and training area in Rock Hill.
After a recent training exercise all that's left of a suit case is strips of leather, and a nice size crater.
The Rock Hill Police Bomb squad will be working with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police and FBI Bomb squads during the Democratic National Convention
If you want to join the bomb squad they are hiring – we posted how you can find out more at www.RHPDrecruit.com.
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