Suspicious Package Found At St. Joseph Orthodox Church In Wheaton Was Doorbell Being Delivered
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A suspicious package was found at St. Joseph Orthodox Church in Wheaton Monday evening around 7:30, according to the City of Wheaton.
A member of the church called authorities to report the suspicious package which had "a bizarre note on it" and was "all taped up," according to Deputy Chief Bob Miller of the Wheaton Police Department.
At 8:58 p.m. city officials announced that the DuPage County Bomb Squad would be "rendering the device safe" in the next few minutes. This resulted in a blast that sounded like a shotgun going off.
After "rendering the package safe," officials determined it to be a doorbell. They didn't feel comfortable with that and "wanted to charge it a second time," Miller said.
"We wanted to just render it safe because we didn't know what it was," he said. "The note didn't really make sense. It described that it was numerous electronic devices in the box. The box was completely taped up, just to the point where it didn't look like UPS delivered the box in any way."
Wheaton Police are investigating a suspicious package at St. Joseph's Church at 412 Crescent St. Crescent is closed at Washington & Sumner and police are evacuating nearby homes as a precaution. Bomb squad has been called in to determine what is in the package.
— City of Wheaton (@CityOfWheaton) June 11, 2019
Crescent Street was closed at Washington and Sumner, police say.
Police evacuated nearby homes "as a precaution."
Wheaton police will continue the investigation to determine who left the package at the church doors.