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A suspicious object that prompted an evacuation of part of downtown Bozeman Tuesday night turned out to be a pipe containing a trailer registration.

The weatherproof metal pipe was capped on both ends and was spotted by a passerby in the 100 block of North Willson Avenue in the alley, according to Bozeman Police Lt. Dave McManis. Authorities were alerted at around 5 p.m. and shut down an area around Mendenhall and Willson.

"It looked like a pipe bomb, that's the first thing you think of. I certainly wouldn't want to unscrew it. We always err on the side of caution," McManis said.

A Lewis and Clark County special response squad drove down from Helena. At about 8:15 p.m. the two men on the team used a remote mounted gun aimed with a laser at the package and fired on it twice. When they inspected the object they found that it was a pipe containing a trailer registration. McManis says they believe it fell off a trailer.

"It ended the moment we pulled the registration out of it," he said.

The Bozeman Fire Department also responded.

The incident ended at around 9:30 p.m.