An Auckland businessman who discovered what he is certain was a bomb in a cooler bag left in a popular Mission Bay reserve at the weekend fears it could have been very serious if the bag had been ignored.
A police spokesperson said they were still investigating the discovery of a suspicious item left at the reserve near Patterson Ave and wanting to speak with anyone in the area in the early hours of Saturday morning to confirm its exact contents and how it was left there.
Mission Bay resident Rob Hallie was walking his dog at 6.50am on Saturday when a distressed council worker ran up to him and asked for his help. He followed the rubbish collector over to a tree about 2m from the community police station where there was a light blue cooler bag containing a home-made device.
"It was unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was actually seeing," Mr Hallie said. "This was a bomb in a reserve, which is crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people. It was a disbelief that what I was actually seeing was actually a bomb. It took a couple of seconds to sink in."
Zipped inside the soft cooler bag was a five litre plastic container full of fluid and a black wire connected two devices taped to the side and top of the container.