A major beer company is apologizing after a suspicious package shut down a busy downtown intersection during rush hour Monday afternoon.
The Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West intersection was closed at around 5 p.m. after a briefcase was discovered attached to metal railing.
Toronto Transit Commission streetcar service was also suspended as police were called in to investigate.
The briefcase, it turns out, was part of a summer marketing promotion run by Coors Light Canada.
In a press release issued earlier this month, the promotion, dubbed Search+Rescue, is described as a mission “to help save Canadians from an average summer” through a month-long challenge to find prizes using an online map and through clues from Twitter.
Some 880 similar briefcases were to be hidden in locations across the country during July, the release stated.
In a tweet sent out shortly after 6 p.m., the TTC encouraged the company to get in touch with both police and the transit agency.
“@coorslightca 501 Queen streetcar route diverting due to a box located at Dundas and Spadina. Please contact TTC immediatelyor 911. #TPS.”
Coors Light Canada apologized to the TTC for the impact to commuters via Twitter at around 6:45 p.m.
“@TTCnotices Sincerest apologies for any disruption this has caused. We are contacting appropriate people immediately to fix the situation.”
The stunt did not sit well with some commuters and city resident who responded to the company on social media.
“Huge police investigation because there is some type of suspicious package at spadina and dundas. Apparently it's a marketing fail :s,” wrote Twitter user @suemhmd.
“@coorslightca @TTCnotices Your marketing department is filled with morons. And your beer sucks,” Twitter user @BCWesseling wrote.
In a statement issued shortly after 10 p.m., Coors Light Canada said that “proactive steps” had been taken by the company to try and ensure that situations like the one Monday in Toronto would not have occurred.
“We worked closely with first responders in all markets to ensure they had visibility and input to what we were doing, and also aimed to fence-gate locations like transit corridors where the cases might be perceived as a threat,” the release states.
“While the program had been highly successful and without incident over the past few weeks, we sincerely regret the delay we caused commuters in Toronto today.”
The company also announced that “today’s boxes will mark the program’s completion.”
“For the Coors Light drinkers who were following the program, a new wave of the program will be introduced at bars across the country in the coming weeks,” it said.
There was no immediate word from police on whether any charges would be laid.
