Mentor Police Release Name Of Man Who Caused Bomb Scare At Mall (Updated)

Kevin Striley is charged with inducing panic, obstructing official business and littering

* By Jason Lea
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* December 27, 2011

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Kevin Striley Courtesy of Mentor Police
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Updated at 10:45 a.m.

Mentor Police have released the name of the person whose suitcase triggered a 3-hour long bomb scare outside of Barnes & Noble Saturday morning.

Kevin Striley, 43, was arrested Saturday and charged with inducing panic, obstructing official business and littering. Judge John Trebets arraigned him Tuesday morning in Mentor Municipal Court.

Trebets set Striley's bond at $102,000, which was not posted. His next court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Striley used to live in Mason, OH, but he is now homeless, Mentor Police Lt. Ken Zbiegien said.

He left his suitcase outside of the bookstore Friday night. When asked why he left the suitcase, he told police, "(I) was tired of carrying it," Zbiegien said.

A passerby saw the suitcase, thought it was suspicious and called the police.

When police asked Striley what was inside of the suitcase, he refused to tell them. Consequently, police called in the Lake County Bomb Squad in case the suitcase contained explosives.

For three hours, authorities cordoned the area around Barnes & Noble and Max & Erma's while they assessed the situation. The bomb squad ultimately decided to have its bomb robot fire two shotgun shells into the suitcase while everyone was a safe distance away from it.

After ascertaining it wasn't a bomb, authorities found the suitcase only contained personal affects, including a silk tie, a few rare coins, a Kodak camera and some other trinkets.

Striley was charged with inducing panic once before in 2009. However, Zbiegien did not know the circumstances surrounding that previous arrest.