A possible bomb scare reported Thursday afternoon at a car auction business in the foothills west of Tracy was found to just be a hoax.

San Joaquin Sheriff’s Deputy Les Garcia said this morning that the “suspicious item” a bomb squad was called to check out was not an explosive device. He said someone called it in, thinking it might have been something dangerous. Garcia said the bomb squad didn’t offer too much of a description of the item.

A security guard found something Thursday afternoon that looked like a stick of dynamite with wires attached to it in a pickup truck at Golden Gate Auctions, 18501 W. Stanford Road, said a source who asked not to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak about it.

Golden Gate Auctions could neither confirm nor deny the bomb scare and declined to comment.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad got the call at 2:23 p.m., Garcia said.

•Contact Tracy Press reporter Justin Lafferty at 830-4269 or jlafferty@tracypress.com.