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Wednesday, 08 April 2009 |
By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
An area school was evacuated Tuesday after a bomb was reported to be near the building.
Students at Botkins Local School were ushered out the doors at approximately 11:30 a.m. amid worries that an explosive device was planted in an automobile outside the building.
Botkins Police Chief Wayne Glass said his department was notified by the Wapakoneta Police Department that they had received information from “reliable sources” there was a bomb in a student’s car on the street near the school building.
“Once we received the call, we exercised precautionary measures and evacuated the school and the north end of the village,” Glass said.
Glass said his department called in a bomb dog from Lima to check and sweep the area, including the vehicle the bomb was allegedly in, as well as other nearby vehicles. No explosives were found.
“We just think it was a hoax,” Glass said.
By 1 p.m., law enforcement officials had cordoned off entrances to the school, and a constant stream of parents and their children emerged from the Immaculate Conception Church where the students were told to wait until the search was over.
Wapakoneta Police Chief Dave Webb told the Wapakoneta Daily News on Wednesday that the alleged informant was an inmate at the Auglaize County Jail.
“This inmate was speaking to his counselor and wanted to get something off his chest,” Webb said. “He wanted to come clean and tell someone what he knew.”
Webb said once the inmate informed his counselor of the possible bomb location, the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office contacted the Wapakoneta Police Department, which in turn contacted Glass at the Botkins Police Department.
The inmate who made the allegations has been in jail since September. Webb said the inmate apparently knew the student who had the alleged explosive device in his vehicle.
“Anytime someone makes those kinds of statements, you have to take those steps,” Webb said of the school evacuation. “You can’t blow people off when it comes to something like that.”
Webb said the inmate could face possible additional charges after finding his information to apparently be false.
Officers from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Anna Police Department and Jackson Center Police Department also assisted on the scene.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 09 April 2009 )
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