By SUSAN FIELD
Clare Managing Editor

A suspicious package found at an Isabella County post office Friday morning turned out to be Christmas presents.

Isabella County sheriff's deputies were called to the post office at 3905 E. Rosebush Road in Isabella Township at 7:22 a.m. when a postal worker noticed a large, standard green military-style foot locker in the lobby, Undersheriff John Vinson said.

The footlocker contained no name, address label or any type of writing. However, nothing out of the ordinary was found near the item, Vinson said.

As a precaution, several homes and businesses surrounding the post office were evacuated as officers waited for a Michigan State Police Bomb Squad from Lansing to arrive. Local police called for the team at 7:45 a.m., Vinson said.

As police waited for the bomb squad to get to the scene, a local woman approached officers and said she thought the locker may have been left at the post office by her brother, who is a mentally challenged adult and had planned on donating toys to the needy, the undersheriff said.

The woman told police she thought her brother planned on dropping off the donated toys at a local gasoline station and identified the item, confirming that it was missing from her garage, after police showed her a photograph.

She also told police the footlocker contained toys.

When the bomb squad arrived at about 9 a.m., members briefly inspected the footlocker before heading back to Lansing, Vinson said. Deputies left shortly after.

The employee who discovered the footlocker told police the post office lobby doors should have automatically locked at 7 p.m. Thursday and that workers had been having problems with the lock freezing up.

When the worker arrived Friday morning, however, the lobby door was locked.

Isabella Northeast firefighters assisted at the scene.