LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) – Bars and restaurants in one Kentucky city are planning a do-over of New Year’s Eve after a bomb scare caused police to evacuate a chunk of the downtown business district just as revelers were settling in.
Debbie Long, who owns the restaurant Dudley’s on Short, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that her place was fully booked Thursday night, and she had just texted someone to say they were going to be able to make rent and be on good footing for the new year when the call came to evacuate, shortly after 8 p.m.
Lexington police later said they had spotted a suspicious RV in a parking lot on the next block, and an explosives-sniffing police dog signaled an alert. Although it eventually turned out to be a false alarm, police weren’t taking any chances after the Christmas Day bombing by a man in an RV in downtown Nashville.
People poured out of bars and restaurants, hotels and apartments as police blocked off a 24-block area in the heart of downtown for about two hours.
“We left food on the table. Candles burning. Coats hanging,” Long said. They helped one couple, in their 80s, call someone to come get them because they couldn’t move their car.