Part of an Indio apartment complex was evacuated Thursday when workers discovered a suspicious device inside an evicted tenant’s former unit.
Dispatchers received a call around 9:30 a.m. reporting “suspicious wiring” in one of the units at the Watercrest at the Polo Fields apartment complex in the 46000 block of Monroe Street, according to Indio Police Department spokesman Benjamin Guitron.
Officers arrived at the complex and evacuated about a dozen nearby units as a precaution. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s Hazardous Device Team was summoned to the scene and as of midday was still checking the wiring to determine if it posed any threat, Guitron said.
It was not the first time police had been called to the apartment. On June 9, police received a call about erratic behavior by a man living in the unit, and he told responding officers he was manufacturing a bomb inside his residence, Guitron said. Police evacuated nearby units but determined there was no threat.
The tenant from the June incident was later evicted, but the call heightened concerns about the suspicious wiring discovered Thursday, Guitron said.
“Last time we were here we had a similar circumstance, so we thought (we should) again call the Hazardous Device Team and look at this device,” Guitron said.
Evacuated residents in need of a place to go were being given shelter at the Indio Senior Center a few blocks away, at 45700 Aladdin St., amid triple-digit temperatures, Guitron said. There was no immediate word on when residents might be allowed back into their units.