News
The item in question turned out to be a theater prop.
“Suspicious package” revealed
The Pointer
ajuhn217@uwsp.edu
Tom Bebeau, a freshman acting major, walked into the Noel Fine Arts Center last Tuesday, Oct. 13, for his morning class.
“That day the props were due, and I brought the prop home for the weekend to work on it and get it done,” said Bebeau.
At 9 a.m. Bebeau was waiting, on the second floor of the NFAC, with another individual for his class to arrive. They began to wonder why no one was around.
He was then informed that the building was on lock down.
“One of the custodial workers saw somebody that looked like they had a weapon. I had no idea what was going on,” said Bebeau.
Around 9:15 a.m. they were told they had not seen the individual with the object in a while and that they could evacuate into the library with everyone else from the first floor.
As he was exiting the building someone stopped him and asked if had brought something into the building. He said yes, and was brought in for further questioning.
A custodian had recognized him by the brown or tan coat he was wearing that morning.
“They came up and asked me, ‘Were you carrying something wrapped in a piece of cloth that was kind of long?’ and I was like, ‘Yes.’ And there was this huge sigh of relief,” said Bebeau.
When students were allowed back into the NFAC, they applauded at the news. The students could be seen piling back into the building from the Dreyfus University Center.
Bob Tomlinson, the vice chancellor of student affairs, said, this may have been the students’ approval of how the university handled the situation.
Jeff Morin, the interim provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, said it was all resolved in a half hour with straightforward procedures.
“The alert was at nine and they let everyone back in at nine thirty,” said Bebeau.
“It was kind of embarrassing at first because … I really felt bad. I mean I interrupted class time; I made a whole lot of people worry.”
“The responsiveness of the whole university security was really good,” said Bebeau.
Bebeau said Gary Olsen, the chair of the theatre and dance department, said it was a good test of our security responsiveness.
“A lot of my friends came up to me after and were like, ‘oh, man you got me out of my class. I am so happy,’” said Bebeau.
Bebeau said this story was in a Chicago newspaper and even the USA Today.
It was in headlines all over the state as well.
“I don’t want to say I did anything wrong,” said Bebeau. “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
