Rehoboth Beach Police Chief Keith Banks said a newspaper deliveryman taking papers to businesses along Rehoboth Avenue told police about 4:30 a.m. he had spotted a man in a storefront with an open briefcase that contained wires and batteries.
The discovery prompted city police to close the area and call in the state police bomb disposal squad.
"We want to take these things seriously," said Banks. "It's better to be safe than sorry."
Shortly after the report came in, police interviewed a man on the boardwalk who said the briefcase was his, but would not say what was in it. Banks said conflicting stories from the man were a cause for concern, as was the fact that he had left the briefcase on Rehoboth Avenue.
Rehoboth police found the briefcase near the bandstand on the north side of Rehoboth Avenue.
Cpl. Jeff Oldham, a state police spokesman, said the bomb disposal squad X-rayed the briefcase as a precaution and then used a water cannon to render it harmless. The briefcase was found to hold a flashlight and other personal items and was not an explosive.
The team searching the area found another suspicious package that also was neutralized at 8:47 a.m. It turned out to be a backpack filled with baby diapers.
The man, who police did not identify, was detained for questioning, but later released with no charges filed, Banks said. His last known address was in Philadelphia and he apparently had been staying in Ocean City, Md. Police said he may have been homeless.
Rehoboth Avenue and the boardwalk reopened at 9:10 a.m., but the activity by police, fire and rescue teams attracted considerable attention from hundreds of people.
A construction crew with D.F. Quillen & Sons Inc. waited for an hour about a block away from their work site at The Shirt Factory while the bomb unit worked on the briefcase and backpack.
The Brew-Ha-Ha! coffee shop at Rehoboth Avenue and First Street remained open for business, but few people knew they were allowed to walk through First Street Station to get there, said Jennifer Wallace, a shop employee.
"We were very, very slow," she said.
