TOMS RIVER — A McDonald’s restaurant on Hooper Avenue was evacuated early Tuesday afternoon when a man in “emotional distress” said his backpack was going to explode.

Police units were dispatched to the fast food restaurant just before 1:30 p.m. for a wellness check of a man in his 50s, in emotional distress, according to the Toms River police.

Out of an abundance of caution, the building was evacuated. The male suspect was detained while K9 officers cleared the backpack and the building before allowing any patrons and staff back inside.

It turned out the suspect did not have any bomb in his bag, police said. He was arrested and charged with creating a false public alarm and charged on an active warrant.

Jen Ursillo is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach her at jennifer.ursillo@townsquaremedia.com

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LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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