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The University of Louisville Department of Public Safety received a report of a “suspicious package” in the quad between the Bingham Humanities building and Ekstrom Library Thursday.
DPS Wayne Hall described the incident, which occurred around 7 p.m., as a “false alarm,” and was likely the result of “someone playing games.” The incident is currently under investigation by the FBI.
The scare came just hours after two threatening phone calls made to the main operators located in the Miller Information Technology building resulted in the evacuation of that building, and a university-wide security alert. This, too, is currently under investigation.
A bomb-sniffing dog was quickly dispatched from the Louisville Airport, according to U of L spokesman John Drees. As the area between the Humanities building and Ekstrom Library was blocked off by police, Drees said that the canine was unresponsive to the small white box labeled “C-4”. “He didn’t pay any attention to it,” Drees said, “they ended up having to lead him to [the package], and he didn’t smell any thing.”
The object, which was a brick sized box wrapped in white paper connected by wire to a small paper “detonator,” was collected by the FBI later that evening.
Richard Bowling, a freshman engineering student, saw the object, which was sitting beneath a tree. He, too, determined the situation to be a false alarm. Referring to the Bingham scare, Bowling said “whoever did this has no respect for the tragedy our nation has just faced.”
Freshman art major Elizabeth Farrar was also at the scene, but was not frightened by the threats. “I treat it not with fear but with contempt. The actions were childish and insensitive.”
In the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech, nearly 50 universities throughout the nation have been disrupted by threats, including Saint Xavier, University of Minnesota, and several Texas colleges. Drees remarked “this has been of great concern of every U of L faculty member for the past four days.”
