If machines had brains, then the bomb disposal robot wheeled in to investigate a suspicious package on Melbourne's Spencer Street on Friday evening could have been described as "contemplative".
Its cameras swivelled as it stood in front of a black backpack left abandoned on the corner of a metal bench. Then it slowly moved towards its target, gingerly reaching out with its single dexterous claw and grasping the bag by its top handle.
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Timelapse: The bomb disposal robot
After a bomb scare in Melbourne's CBD on Friday night, police deployed the bomb disposal robot to investigate the abandoned package.
What it picked up looked suspiciously like an insulated cool bag – the type you can buy at the supermarket and use to carry ice-cream and chilled drinks, a staple of summer in Australia.
But the robot treated the object with the reverence of a real threat to public safety.
So did a human member of the bomb response unit, who approached the bag, which had by now been placed on the ground by the robot, while wearing a bomb suit. They walked towards it, cut it open, then lay on their stomach, rifling through it.
From our vantage point, it appeared the bag was empty. Its insulated lining spilled out.
Police said they were alerted to the bag about 5pm on Friday and quickly moved to close off a large stretch of Spencer Street to all pedestrians, vehicles and trams.
The road cordon was later expanded from busy Southern Cross Station to Flinders Street, to a four block area, with closures at Spencer and Little Collins streets, King and Collins streets, Flinders and Spencer streets and Collins Street and Wurundjeri Way.
It caused havoc for many people commuting home or through the city, with trams stopped between Spencer Street between Southern Cross Station and Batman Park, impacting trams 12, 96 and 109.
And access was blocked to a number hotels, bars and small supermarkets. A staff member at the Batman's Hill on Collins hotel said they had been asked by police to close all doors to Spencer Street.
Roads, footpaths and tram routes were not completely opened again until just before 9pm.
After earlier describing the incident as police conducting "safety checks", a Victoria Police media spokeswoman confirmed the area had been declared safe about 9pm.
"A bomb response unit attended and located a bag. The item was deemed to be non-suspicious and the area has been cleared," she said.
Police have not yet disclosed what was in the bag, if anything – but it wouldn't be the first time the busy area has been shut down by an innocent object, carelessly left behind.
A similarly suspicious package created havoc around Southern Cross Station in 2015, with workers evacuated and a busy intersection cordoned off.