Lakewood police say that an object believed to have been a pipe bomb was in fact a false alarm.

Police say that they received a call from an employee of Atlantic Coast Recycling Center who claimed to have found a pipe bomb inside the building, prompting an evacuation.

The Ocean County Sheriff Department K-9 Unit and New Jersey State Police Bomb Squad responded to the scene to investigate.

But police say that the item was not a bomb but was actually a device made in the late 1960s that was used for flares or fuses. Officials say that they are not exactly sure how the item got into the building, but that they believe it was brought in sometime last week by a refuse company dropping off recyclables to be sorted. 

Police had to lockdown the area while they investigated the item. New Hampshire Avenue between Cedarbridge Avenue and Route 70 was shut down for a time as well.