By Amanda Kramer

The Times-Georgian

An innocent flashing light kit designed to attract the curious eyes of young children to a vending machine ended up attracting far more attention after the battery-operated device was accidently dropped during a deposit at a Villa Rica bank Thursday morning.

Police said about 20 tellers, staff and customers at Regions Bank on Highway 78 were evacuated and led across the highway after the driver of an armored truck found a device with wires sticking out wrapped around a large bag of quarters at the bank. The driver believed it may have been an explosive device, said Villa Rica police Capt. Keith Shaddix.

The truck driver alerted the bank employees, who called 911. Within two minutes, about six police cars and a crew of Carroll County Fire and Rescue firefighters were outside the busy parking lot near Villa Rica City Hall. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s bomb technician and a bomb disposal truck were also notified and en route to the bank. The city’s police chief, Michael Mansour, arrived only minutes after the call came out from dispatchers saying a suspicious package had been discovered at the bank around 10:45 a.m.

While the bank was being evacuated, police said, a man who works for a vending machine company came forward and admitted to being the “culprit.”

The man told police he had heard a description of the so-called “explosive device” and realized the device was, instead, a battery-operated flashing light that he places on vending machines to attract children to the tasty treats inside.

The man said the light kit had fallen when he made a deposit of about 70 pounds in coins at the bank that morning. When the battery-operated light pack fell, some of the wires apparently appeared to be attached to the deposit bag — making what police said looked like it could be an explosive device.

The suspicious device was no longer suspicious after police confirmed the wires came from the battery-operated light, and the bank was reopened and back to business as usual within about 20 minutes, Shaddix said.

“When we were notified, this was a serious incident,” Mansour said. “We needed to get there as soon as possible and get everyone out quickly and to safety. With this type of call, you always have to treat it as real and then stage down if otherwise. When the battery pack with all the wires got stuck to the money, you couldn’t tell it wasn’t real until you looked very close.”

Mansour said he was pleased with the response of police and firefighters who arrived at the scene and were in place in the event the device was explosive.

“Everything went real well at every stage,” he said. “Thankfully, this was not more than it was.”