SEATTLE – Investigators have found that a misunderstanding of an overheard conversation in the passenger ferry terminal area at Colman Dock was what prompted an evacuation of the area Tuesday night. The evacuation had initially been tied to what authorities described as a bomb threat.

Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud said police have determined that a person at the passenger ferry terminal initially thought a “slang term” they overheard to be a threat. Not understanding what the other person was talking about, they called 911, Michaud said.

“It happens,” Michaud said, noting that it was good the person had called 911. “No one’s mad at anyone.”

More:Colman Dock evacuated after bomb threat

The call set off investigators from the Seattle Police Department, the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol to search the area for anything suspicious. Ferries delayed and held out in Elliott Bay as authorities searched the dock area.

K-9 dogs swept areas surrounding Colman Dock and found nothing suspicious, Washington State Patrol Trooper Kevin Fortino said. An initial notification about the incident came in at about 7 p.m. and investigators finished their checks by 8:30 p.m., he said.

Washington State Ferries didn’t cancel sailings, but the incident did delay vessels by about an hour, WSF spokesman Ian Sterling said.

“Sometimes these things are developing situations, and as much as we like everything to go by the book, with a bomb scare, it’s no longer by the book,” he said, noting that staff sent out rider alerts and updates on social media as quickly as possible.

While in the Seattle terminal, Bainbridge Island’s Galen Crawford said she and others were told the building was closing and weren’t given any additional information. After spending some time at a nearby restaurant, she made her way north for the Edmonds-Kingston ferry crossing. She’d later learn that the Seattle terminal had reopened, she said.

“No one was told where to go, what to do,” she said. “It was just, ‘Leave.’"

Nathan Pilling is a reporter covering Bainbridge Island, North Kitsap and Washington State Ferries for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-5242, nathan.pilling@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @KSNatePilling.

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