A U.S. Postal Service worker was arrested Saturday in a bomb threat that forced police to evacuate two charter buses and close the Capital Beltway for 90 minutes, authorities said.
A woman called a passenger aboard one of two charter buses carrying postal workers from Merrifield, Va., to Atlantic City, N.J., and said there was a bomb aboard, said Sgt. Russell Newell, a Maryland State Police spokesman.
Police stopped both buses in Silver Spring, searched them and found nothing dangerous, Newell said. The highway was closed from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. for the investigation. Passengers continued their trip about three hours later.
Investigators traced the call to the U.S. Postal Service center in Merrifield, and postal inspectors arrested a female employee, Newell said. Charges are pending against the woman, whose name was not released.