Bag creates stir at CMU
March 12, 2003
A bag filled with hundreds of loose notebook pages covered with incoherent scrawl closed a… A bag filled with hundreds of loose notebook pages covered with incoherent scrawl closed a Fifth Avenue block for two hours Tuesday morning.
Security cameras captured an unidentified man leaving a bag on the front steps of Carnegie Mellon University’s Engineering Institute at 9 a.m. CMU security officers called police, who sent a bomb squad to investigate. CMU evacuated a portion of the building while police blocked off Fifth Avenue between Craig and Dithridge streets. Both reopened two hours later when police determined the black leather satchel did not pose a threat.
“We’re assuming [the man who left the bag] has psychological problems,” said Lt. Robert Roth from city police’s special deployment division.
In addition to an extensive tome of nonsense, police found a copy of a bachelor’s degree from Robert Morris University in the bag.
Roth said that nothing in the writing was threatening. Police will treat the bag as found property.