Students Evacuated for a Bomb Hoax
By: Baylor Long
Updated: May 6, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, CENTRE COUNTY - Around 600 Penn State students were evacuated from their dorm for a bomb hoax at the University Park campus.
Around 9 p.m. Wednesday night, a janitor found a suspicious device in the basement of Atherton Hall, at the corner of Shortlidge Road and College Avenue.
Penn State Police were called in and quickly decided to evacuate the students living in the building.
Bomb specialist analyzed the "device". According to the University Spokesperson, Bill Mahon, it was "like a water bottle, with wires sticking out of it, maybe a battery or two."
According to Mahon, two students who may have been involved with the creation of the object were being interviewed around midnight.
While it may have turned out to be no threat, Mahon backed the evacuation, "You have to take them [suspicious devices] seriously, until you look at them closely."
The displaced students, were allowed back into their dorm just before 1 a.m., Thursday.
