Bomb scare clears building at UVSC

OREM — Students and faculty were evacuated Wednesday from the LDS Institute of Religion near the Utah Valley State College campus and a bomb squad was called to detonate two suspicious-looking devices.

The devices were the size of a fist, and contained batteries, wire, metal and a motor. They did not contain explosives nor was explosive residue found, said UVSC spokesman Derek Hall.

"The way it was put together," Hall said, "it was meant to look like (a bomb)."

Shortly before 11 a.m., officers from UVSC's campus public-safety department were called to the LDS Institute. A janitor discovered the devices while unclogging toilets in a men's bathroom on the first floor of the church-education building.

He plunged one device into the sewer system, Hall said. He wrapped the second in a rubber glove.

Jack Christianson, director of the institute, said several hundred students were evacuated. "I went room to room (to announce the evacuation)," Christianson said. "We did it very calmly and quietly."

UVSC police called Provo police's bomb squad to help remove and detonate the devices. One was detonated about 12:30 p.m. outside the building, near the Sorensen Student Center.

Police did not detonate the other device, the one that had been plunged in the sewer system, because they did not consider it dangerous, based on the contents of the one they detonated, Hall said.

The building was reopened at 1:45 p.m.

That was a little too late for Heather Sonnenberg's 1 p.m. religion class.

"I think I might just go home," she said close to the time class was supposed to start.

Police cordoned off a portion of a parking lot for the detonation. Rachel Nichols' car was in the restricted area, and she found herself late for work.

"I asked (police), 'Can't I just sneak past?' " Nichols said. "They said, 'No.' "

UVSC police and the security arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are investigating the incident.

Church officials declined to comment on the investigation. They referred questions to UVSC police.

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