Bomb Scare Evacuates Library

The return from winter break is always filled with tension, but some Business School students had a far more stressful experience Wednesday afternoon, when a false bomb scare forced at least 40 industrious students and workers to evacuate Baker Library.

The incident started shortly after 5 p.m. and lasted approximately 45 minutes until a special state police bomb squad X-rayed a suspicious looking package on the library's second floor and determined it was harmless.

Only Jam

The six-by-eight-inch box in question arrived in the mail that day, and contained only "a jar of homemade blackberry jam," said Michael Ahern, a member of the bomb squad.

The suspicious jelly was confiscated by the police and will be taken to a detoxification center for further investigation, Ahern said.

Harvard and Boston police responded shortly after a Business School professor telephoned the Harvard station when she picked up the package from the library's mail room, the official police report said.

The professor, whose identity was not disclosed by the police, suspected the package might be dangerous after she recognized the handwriting of an "unstable" former employee, the report said.

A spokesperson said yesterday that Harvard police rarely receive calls about suspicious packages, although they get about 20 calls a year about bomb threats.

Most of these threats are directed toward the Medical School, primarily from animal rights advocates protesting the school's use of animals in experiments, he said.

Ahern, who said he is one of 14 members of the state's only bomb unit, estimated that the squad last year investigated roughly 1200 incidents. About half of the cases he investigated contained explosive devices, he said.

The bomb scare was not the only inconvenience of the day for Baker occupants. Library employees said there also had been a false fire alarm at about 10 a.m. that forced them to evacuate for about 25 minutes.

"It was just long enough to run out of pleasant conversation," said one staff assistant in the Baker research division.

The alarm had been caused by a speck of dust, a library worker said.