Bob Erickson returns the kidnapped news box.
On Sunday, the day before the 20th anniversary of the Detroit Newspaper Strike, former strikers and supporters gathered at Belle Isle for a picnic to commemorate the milestone.
One interesting addition at the gathering was a Detroit News newspaper box that striker Bob Erickson "liberated" from a party store near his home in Southfield during the strike. The box sat in his garage for 20 years. The original paper from October 1995 was still in the box and the headline read: "Powell: Electing a black president 'could be done.'"
After the picnic Sunday, around 6:30 p.m., Erickson drove with this wife to Fort Street, to a building that houses both the News and the Free Press. Erickson got the newspaper box out of his SUV, and as his wife videotaped him as he used a dolly to deliver the box near the front door of the building.
The video shows a security guard for the building standing out in front while it's all going on, and a film crew (Erickson says he has no idea who they were) asking him questions.
On his own video, he tells the crew that he took custody of the box, and it was prisoner of war of the strike.
On Monday he said: "I liberated it from the party store and I was repatriating it to the News."
A copy of box in front of the building.
Well, authorities didn't take it lightly.
After the box was dropped off, and Erickson and his wife drove off, things happened. Police were called, the building was evacuated and police decided to call in the bomb squad.
Shortly after midnight the bomb squad said everything was fine.
The next day, one former striker posted a remark on Facebook, calling it a childish prank that used up police resources that could have better been deployed elsewhere in the city.
Erickson said he was just having some fun and had no idea the police bomb squad would be called.
"I had no idea, I didn't even think of that," Erickson said.
Sgt. Cassandra Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Police Department, told Deadline Detroit the department decided to respond with extra caution when it received a call after 8 p.m. about a suspicious package. She said the department wanted to make sure no one got hurt.