Naperville Ill – Suspicious Suitcase Forces Train Station Evacuation School Lock-down

 UPDATE: False Alarm

The west side of Naperville’s 5th Avenue train station has been evacuated, trains on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad have been stopped in both directions, and schools in the area have been placed on lock-down as authorities investigate a suspicious package left in the bushes near the station.

Cmdr. Dave Hoffman said at 1:15 p.m. today that the DuPage County Bomb Detection Unit is responding to the scene as well as dogs from the Metra Police Department, which are specially trained for explosives detection.

The package was described as a suitcase, and it appeared several suspects purposely concealed it in some bushes sometime this morning along Ellsworth Street adjacent the 5th Avenue Station, authorities said.

A bomb threat was called in Wednesday morning, the DuPage County sheriff’s office sent its bomb squad to the station, at 105 E. 4th Ave. in downtown Naperville.

At 11:30 a.m., a train headed from Union Station to Aurora was stopped just east of the Naperville depot, and police evacuated the station, Metra officials said. By the 1 p.m. hour, all trains were stopped, including Burlington Northern line Metra trains and freight trains.

A bomb squad trailer was situated in the parking lot, where a suitcase had been spotted in the bushes between the parking lot and the tracks. The suitcase was isolated by the bomb squad and X-rayed on the scene.

It was not known as of 1:25 p.m. if the suitcase contained explosives or other dangerous materials, or if it might have all been a Halloween prank.