A suspicious package in Dunn Hall emptied the building of its inhabitants early Monday morning.
The initial call rang in at about 9 a.m. from a custodial supervisor who then reported the package to the campus police. A U of M police officer was the first to arrive on the scene.
The package, which was described as an unmarked cardboard box approximately 2 to 2 and a half feet long, 1 foot wide, and 10 inches tall held together neatly with blue tape, was deemed suspicious after sitting in the northeast stairwell of Dunn for the weekend.
Tiffany Williams and Tiara Harper were in their Spanish class when an alert crossed the computer screen informing them to evacuate the building, but no further information was provided to them at that time.
"We were waiting outside Spanish class when they came in and said 'Everyone needs to evacuate the building, we have a suspicious package that we need to check out before you guys can enter,'" sophomore nursing major Breckyn Wilson said.
Students and faculty were told the wait could take half an hour.
"I heard an officer yelling for everyone to get out but I didn't know what he was talking about so I just thought that was weird and then he came in and told us to evacuate," senior computer science major Lorrie Hayes said.
Joey Clark, a senior civil engineering major, was under the initial impression that the alert was merely a test of the systems.
Thirty minutes passed, and the building was still off-limits.
"I bet they're waiting on the bomb squad," said senior Kyle Perriguey as he waited among the evacuees.
Perriguey and his class were informed of the package via Alertus.
The Psychology Building was not evacuated because the package was far enough away that the building's occupants were not in danger.
"A stairwell like that is very contained," Bruce Harber, director of University of Memphis Police Services, said.
"Alertus is an on-screen alert tied directly into our Tiger Text on any computer that's turned on on campus," Harber said.
The Memphis Police Tactical Crew arrived on the scene shortly after the alert but did not don protective gear to investigate the package.
"In a case like this you want to err on the way of caution but since it had been there for about 5 or 6 days it was less of a threat," Harber said.
Around 11 a.m., the police entered the building with briefcases, yellow wire and a jug of water. Fourteen minutes later, a loud boom, later identified by Harber as a "disruptor test," was heard from outside the building, and shortly after, a thumbs-up was given and the public was allowed back inside.
"We know now that the emergency notification system works," Harber said.
The contents of the package were discovered soon after the disruptor test, and it was evident that it was hardly lethal.
"We found that it was just a laptop and some newspapers," Harbor said. "We just wanted to go ahead and take the precautions."
The owner of the box has not been identified.
