Evacuation Ends At Chase Corporate Building
Photo courtesy of John Finley
UPDATE: Chase employees reenter corporate headquarters after a suspicious device is found to be a piece of time-keeping equipment.
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Hundreds of employees were evacuated from Chase Bank corporate headquarters Tuesday on reports of a suspicious device that turned out to be a piece of time-keeping equipment.
NBC 4 reported with the FAST FACTS.
Columbus fire and police were called out to 1111 Polaris Pkwy before 10:30 a.m. Tuesday on an original report of a bomb threat, according to Columbus police.
The suspicious device was found in a conference room, according to CPD Sgt. Rich Weiner.
And although crews thought the device was a credible threat, it was a part of a speaker’s presentation—not a suspicious device or bomb.
The device in question is used to time presentations. It is placed in front of a presenter to prompt him or her on the time allotted or remaining in the presentation, according to a Chase spokesperson.
It does have characteristics of a “suspicious device.” The time-keeping device was found in the conference room by someone unfamiliar with its purpose. Internal security was contacted and agreed it looked suspicious. Precautionary measures were taken, the spokesperson said.
It remained unknown whether the presenting speaker was a Chase employee.
Authorities evacuated the Chase Bank corporate headquarters for about two hours during the investigation. The parking lot also was evacuated for a short time to ensure employees’ safety in the case of a second device.
The exact number of people evacuated was not immediately available, but it could be estimated in the hundreds.
Evacuated employees reentered the building shortly before 12:30 p.m.
It remained unclear whether charges would be filed.
No one was injured during the incident, and
No more immediate information was available.
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Reader Reactions
jdtx…i doubt the CEo had a clue as to what was going on, let alone made a decision as to whom wilkl evacuate or not. the higher up you go, the less work and the dumber you get…if you dont believe me, just look at our nations top executive official…(thats osama to you 20 watts.)
number9 July 28, 2009 at 12:29 pm:
“apparently there are subcontractors still in some of the occupied buildings that are being told they will be fired if they leave?“
st43110 July 28, 2009 at 2:58 pm
“No one was told they would be fired if they left, they were told that they would be fired if alarms were going off in your area and you ignored them.“
READ these user’s full posts. The latter is an obvious cover-up. They did not consider the lives of everyone in the building. If a school gets a bomb threat, do you evacuate half of it? I was one of the contractors trapped in the building. We tried to evacuate when we heard, but we were sent back in, and we WERE threatened that we would be fired if we evacuated. Whoever decided to treat us this way does not consider the ramifications of the growth potential of Chase bank in this troubled economy, or the accountability, credibility, and humility that it’s CEO’s and chairman SHOULD have shown on this day. They APPARENTLY don’t remember, or care what happened on 9/11.
The building is a little more than big. It’s as long as the Empire State building is high. The reason they did not evacuate all 8500 employees is because bomb sniffing dogs did a complete sweep. They evacuated the 1/2 of the building that was in the most danger first, and then did a sweep. They eventually evacuated the entire building for safety purposes. No one was told they would be fired if they left, they were told that they would be fired if alarms were going off in your area and you ignored them. We were told to walk away from the building for 2 hours for lunch and return for an update. We were permitted back in the building shortly after the 2 hour mark because the bomb squad was in the process of sending in robots to retrieve the device when the owner of the device identified herself and clarified the device was recording/timing device for speeches.
I know it’s a big building, but it’s ridiculous they weren’t all evacuated. How are they to know where there were and were not other “explosive devices.“
apparently there are subcontractors still in some of the occupied buildings that are being told they will be fired if they leave?
this is what im hearing.
The package was found in the P Wing which is on the south end of the building. If folks are on the north side of the bulding by the main entrance they may not have been evacuated. My wife and sister are both in the N wing and were evacuated. My team is in the M wing so would guess they were also evacuated.
Secured access yes - but with thousands of individuals working within the building, very easy to ‘piggy-back’ in…
i’m sure it will end up to be misplaced supplies or something mundane.
Building is secure. Requires badge to get in,but folks piggy back all the time. Hard to stop that with the number of folks that go in and out of there. Hearing they are encouraging folks to just go home and work from home if possible. Some folks being told could be at least 2 - 3 hours before they are let back in.
My husband is working there this week, I’m not sure where in the building he is but I do know that he has not been evacuated. He is in a complete lock down though.
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