.....”many pictures of disassembled clocks that look just like what this kid brought”.....
Who cares what they look like disassembled....people don’t sit around home and take apart clocks to see how they run... but they do know that bombs use timers sufficient enough that if one is in a suitcase it should , and was, investigated further.
Sure they do. Also it let’s you fix things. First time I took apart a clock was because the alarm switch got stuck, so I took it apart to clean the gunk out. Eventually took it apart again to clip the wires to the speaker because it regunked and I couldn’t make it stop having the alarm on and didn’t need that functionality for it anymore, in theory that clock still goes off every midnight. People used to fix things in this country, which includes taking them apart and seeing how they work. Then there was the days of Sharper Image who sold a lot of standard household good with see thru plastic cases so you could see the guts. Removes a lot of mystery from life, but also makes it so you can look at that picture and say “yup, that’s a clock, I’ve seen all those parts put together exactly that way before”. Really the fact that he still has the speaker for the alarm is the give away that it’s not a bomb. Also the fact that it barely fits in the box, not really any room for explosives in there. If you want a bomb you need your clock parts to be as small as possible and not waste room.