The Blue Line was back to normal Tuesday morning, and the Kennedy was reopened after a bomb squad had to shut the area down as a precaution.
"The bomb squad arrived and were able to examine this briefcase. They were able to determine that it was not bonafide. It was not anything that contained explosives," said John Escalante, Chicago Police Department.
Chicago police were first called to the Addison Blue Line platform around 6 p.m. Monday at the height of evening are rush hour. That prompted police to temporarily shut down the Blue Line, stop traffic on the Kennedy Expressway and halt traffic on Addison Street for a couple hours.
While police say they didn't find any explosives in the briefcase, they would not be specific as to why they thought it was suspicious in the first place.
As the bomb squad wrapped up the investigation of the abandoned briefcase, they also used a pair of small explosives to open a car in a parking lot near Addison and the Kennedy. The car apparently drew the attention of a police dog that was sweeping the area for anything suspicious.
