A briefcase labeled with an explosive nickname sent part of Florida State University's campus into emergency mode Thursday afternoon, but FSU officials said the scare proved to be nothing more than a good test of its emergency resources.
At 11:40 a.m., a Parking and Transportation Services employee working inside a campus parking garage reported a briefcase inside a white Isuzu pickup truck with "A-Bomb" written in white letters, FSU Police Department spokesman Jim Russell said
The scare triggered a reaction from FSU's police and local bomb squad. But a 17-year-old high school student who was visiting his girlfriend on campus claimed the vehicle and briefcase at 1:15 p.m., explaining that "A-Bomb" is his nickname.
"We're very happy that it was not a bomb," Russell said.
FSU spokeswoman Browning Brooks said FSU used four tools in Thursday's alarm: blanket e-mail alerts, reverse-911 calls to blind students, a post on its Web page with updates and text messages. Brooks said most of the alerts were released smoothly, but the text messages got to some students hours later.
UF plans to test its emergency text-messaging system for a second time on April 18.
