By ANNE IRELAND
A package BYU postal workers thought might hold a bomb turned out to be an alarm clock.
Mike Harroun, captain of the BYU University Police, said the station received a call from the BYU University Station Post Office Tuesday at 10:54 a.m. He said the workers reported hearing a ticking and an alarm going off inside an 8-inch by 10-inch box wrapped with brown paper.
Sterling Calabio, manager of Mail Services at BYU, said his workers stayed calm and handled the situation well.
'They isolated the package, informed law enforcement and then evacuated the area,' he said. 'Our people are well trained, and they just did their job like they are supposed to.'
BYU police immediately closed off the area outside the east entrances on the first floor of the Wilkinson Student Center as well as the area between the Game Center, the post office and the computer lab on the first floor. Utah County and Provo City bomb squads were called to inspect the package and set up their trailer full of equipment outside the WSC.
Harroun said BYU police tried to contact the sender of the package but were not able to reach her initially. He said the bomb squads X-rayed the box and still had concerns about the package; they saw the clock, but they also saw wires. Eventually, the BYU police contacted the student on campus.
'They had her come over and verify what was in the box and then she opened it,' Harroun said. 'She was somewhat hesitant at first to tell police what was in the package besides the clock.'
Harroun said the student was advised to not send the alarm clock in the package so a similar problem wouldn't happen at another post office.
Calabio said this is the first mail scare at the University Station but other mail services on campus have had instances where workers have had to report potentially harmful parcels. He said each time something questionable happens, the campus police are responsive.
'You can't be too safe in the kind of business we're in,' Calabio said.