Harvard bomb threat compelled the campus police to make sure that several buildings were immediately evacuated on Saturday morning. A few buildings of the Cambridge campus of Harvard University were evacuated after an unidentified man made a few calls to the university, saying that he was inside the campus premises carrying an assault rifle, and that he had already hid some bombs in various places.
The campus treats Harvard bomb threat calls of this intensity with utmost seriousness, and the administration was quick to inform the bomb squad. Classes were stopped and bomb-sniffing dogs were led into the campus. Armed law enforcement officers swept each floor and classroom before they finally gave the all-clear verdict on Saturday afternoon. Simply put, the calls were just part of a big hoax.
Jeremy Warnick, Cambridge Police Department, and Kevin Donovan, Harvard spokesperson, said that the campus police tried to find the gunman as soon as the 1st Harvard bomb threat call was made. However, they did not find anyone who wielded the said assault rifle.
The MBTA Transit Police K-9 units helped the Cambridge Police Department's Explosive Ordinance Unit in locating the bomb that was allegedly placed in four locations, according to the caller. When the calls were made, the fake bomber mentioned four different places where he placed the explosives, including the university's Science Center.
Warnick said that the units did not find any threatening items that could be explosives within the campus premises. However, they did find a box that was wrapped in bubble wrap, just as the Harvard bomb threat caller had described. After it was placed under an x-ray, it was found out that it did not contain any explosive devices. It was removed by the police and is being held as evidence at the moment.
The police is now trying to identify who the Harvard bomb threat caller was, and, surprisingly, two Twitters contacted a Globe reporter and gave out public messages that they were the ones responsible for the calls. The screen shots of the messages were then sent to the Cyber Crime division of FBI for further investigation. Warnick said, "We've turned a lot of this information over to federal agents, and they'll work to figure out where the call and tweets came from."
