A few days ago I walked into Kendal in warm spring sunshine while I admired daffodils and ducks along the river. Cumbria was at its best and I felt relaxed and well in my world.

My walk finished at Sandes Avenue traffic lights and I later cut through Westmorland Shopping Centre on my way to the bank. Swinging past Argos I wondered whether to go up the escalators or follow the mall out into Highgate. As I stopped to deliberate I noticed something which interrupted my train of thought.

At the base of the escalators next to a small chair and table was a black briefcase and a large half-filled hessian shopping bag. They were sitting there on their own. No one was with them.

Why? The adjacent biscuit kiosk was closed so they didn’t belong there. A clipboard was on the small table next to them but the owner was nowhere to be seen.

We live in a world of terror-related crime. We are told to keep alert. I lived in London in the 80s and my antennae for public safety vigilance started to back-chat my first reaction to walk by and ignore the packages: “What are you going to do?” “Probably belongs to the owner of the clipboard … they’ll be back”. “Really, are you sure?” “How long should I wait to see if this potential bomb goes off and proves it is actually a bomb?” “How long do I give the owner time to get back? “Have they gone to lunch or on a loo-break?” “Why is everyone just walking by?”

A young couple made clear eye contact with the package duo and carried on up the escalators, chatting indifferently. They didn’t think it mattered. Was I daft?

There was a terror-related attack on Westminster Bridge in London a few weeks ago. The person used knives and a car - perhaps terrorists don’t use bombs anymore?

Are we still supposed to be on the alert for the planned bomber? Are we still supposed to be looking out for unattended packages and reporting them immediately?

I took three 'will-I-won’t-I minutes' before I walked into Body Shop and asked a shop assistant to come and look. She contacted Security. I didn’t stay to see what happened.

As I walked out into the warm sunshine I was left with questions. How many of us see unattended packages but walk on by nevertheless?

Did we actually learn anything from the wall-to-wall coverage of the Westminster Bridge attack? Westminster to Westmorland is not that big a step!

J. Cohu

Kendal

l Editor's note: The Westmorland Gazette contacted Malcolm Nightingale, a member of the Institute of Professional Will Writers, to whom the briefcase and bag belonged. Mr Nightingale, of Able Wills, has a stand in the shopping centre for a week every couple of months, and told the Gazette he was in the centre that day for seven and a half hours. The Grape Tree opposite where he was stationed kindly made him a cup of tea and while in the shop for just a couple of minutes the bag and briefcase were in his full view at all times.