posted 05-08-2006 07:43 PM                    

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A device was spotted in front of a Worthington movie theater Monday morning, forcing evacuations.

They get called on these a lot, but on Monday, the Columbus police bomb squad thought they had a real one.

They kept the public far away when it started, but after a closer look at the device, people were pushed back another 100-yards and the bomb squad started to get nervous.

The item, which was apparently part of a promotional event for Mission Impossible 3, was found outside the cinema and looked like a device with wires attached to it.

When the bomb squad arrived, they put their investigative robot to work.

After evacuating and securing a perimeter up to three football fields, the robot pulled the wires from the device. It was then that they discovered that the "device" was made out of Styrofoam.

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posted 05-09-2006 07:44 AM                    

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Movie theater prop leads to visit from bomb squad
By Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12:16 AM
Fake explosives fashioned for a movie theater promotion generated some unintended fallout yesterday: a visit by the bomb squad.

It began harmlessly enough.

To herald last Friday's release of Tom Cruise's new film, Mission: Impossible III, the staff at Marcus Crosswoods Ultrascreen Cinema just north of Worthington made a number of movie-related props for scavenger hunts in the lobby.

Their mission: entertain patrons and plug the movie during the opening weekend.

A bona fide emergency response and a bomb-dismantling robot did not figure into those plans.

"You had to walk around the theater lobby and find the objects from the movie," said Carlo Petrick, communications manager for Marcus Theatres.

Those items included a briefcase, a cell phone, and "this object, which was supposed to represent C-4 plastic explosives from the film," he said.

The promotion didn't lead to any problems until someone, police don't know who, removed the C-4 prop from the lobby and left it in the lot out front of the theater near I-270 and Rt. 23.

A passer-by spotted it there at 9:13 a.m., sending Columbus police, fire crews, and the bomb squad to the theater, fire Capt. Steve Saltsman said.

They cordoned off the lot around the still-closed theater and sent the robot to take a look.

"We think it was intentionally placed there as a hoax," Saltsman said, after crews cleared the scene around 11 a.m.

Only after speaking with theater managers later yesterday did investigators realize the device came from the theater.

"How it ended up outside, we don't know," said Battalion Chief Doug Smith. "Tell you what, it looked real."

Columbus police spokeswoman Officer Betty Schwab said the person who left the object behind could face a charge of inducing panic, but she doubted an arrest would result.

"It would be hard to prove, No. 1," she said. "We're probably kind of stuck."

"They probably just thought it looked neat and then decided they didn't want it when they were outside," Petrick surmised.

The theater-sponsored scavenger hunts, he noted, have self-destructed.

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