Oak Park Heights police closed a portion of Hwy. 36 for a couple of hours early Tuesday after a pedestrian near a strip mall found a suspicious device.

The device was beeping when the person who found it near a Kohl's store and a Menards store called police around 4:45 a.m., said Oak Park Police Chief Brian DeRosier.

A search by law enforcement turned up three more devices in the immediate area, and police set up a perimeter to keep the public away. That included shutting down the eastbound lanes of Hwy. 36 at Hwy. 5 and a frontage road in front of the mall, DeRosier said.

The devices were 6 to 8 inches long, wrapped in foil and had a fuse or stick protruding from them. The St. Paul Bomb Squad was called in and detonated one of the devices. The squad determined they were not explosives, DeRosier said.

It was not immediately clear if they were a store security type of device, but they were "not the type normally seen on clothing," he said.

Authorities believe the devices were purposely placed near a sidewalk and sign near the mall. "We believe they were intentionally planted. They would not have landed there if they had been thrown from a vehicle."

No suspects are in custody and no one was injured.

Anybody with information is asked to call Oak Park Police at 651-439-4723.