Suitcases cause a scare outside Kohl's

Two suitcases left outside a Kohl's store at Gurnee Mills put authorities on alert Thursday night.

Gurnee firefighters responding to the east entrance, one of two to the store, about 6 p.m. saw the suitcases next to each other in a corner near the entrance, according to Battalion Chief Barry Henby.

"Big black suitcases, like what you travel with," he said. "They were ones like you'd check on a plane. They were pretty large."

The entrance and surrounding area was blocked, and the Waukegan bomb squad called to investigate. An X-ray of the packages showed nothing suspicious, and they were found to be empty when opened.

The store was closed for about an hour, Henby said.

"We did not have to evacuate the mall we only isolated that one area," he added.

He said the responding agencies worked well together during the incident, which lasted more than two hours.

Henby said the mall did not receive any threats and why the suitcases were left behind was not known.