Bomb Sniffing K9 Searches Evergreen Park Schools

EVERGREEN PARK, IL -- For the second time in a week Evergreen Park public schools were searched by police “out of an abundance of caution.” Evergreen Park police officers, Cook County Sheriff’s deputies and an agent from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Evergreen Park Community High School and Central Middle School over the weekend, and again on Monday morning at the middle school.

Deputy Chief Keith Hojek, of the Evergreen Park Police Department, told Patch the search was prompted by a note left in a resident’s mailbox on Saturday. The resident grew concerned over the contents of the note and called police. An investigation into the author of the note remains ongoing, which Hojek described it as “kid stuff.”

Although there was no specific threat made to either school, police decided to search the high school and middle school as a precaution. Both schools were searched by police during the day on Saturday and later on Saturday night. At the request of Dist. 231 Superintendent Tom O’Malley, police returned to EPCHS on Sunday morning with the ATF agent and a dog trained in smelling explosives. No explosives or hazardous materials were found during the search of the high school..

“We believe we did our due diligence on Saturday and Saturday night,” Hojek said. “It was a precautionary walk-through. We went through both schools. We checked every garbage can and looked through every room with the janitors.”

Police officers, including the ATF agent and K9, went back to Central Middle School at the request of Dist. 124 Superintendent Dr. Robert Machak around 9:30 a.m. Monday. Students were placed on soft lockdown in their classrooms while the dog went through the school. No explosives were found and normal activities resumed. Police haven’t identified the person who left the note in the resident’s mailbox on Saturday. An investigation is ongoing.

Last week, EPCHS went into soft lockdown shortly before the afternoon dismissal when a tweet went out about gun in the school. No weapon was found the student who allegedly posted the tweet was interviewed by police.