City Hall Briefly on Lockdown Over Bomb Scare

Michigan State Police dispatched bomb squad personnel to the Dearborn Heights City Hall Thursday morning and used a robot to open a duct-taped tennis ball that turned out to be harmless. Wrapped inside was a paper towel.

The State Police got the call about the suspicious-looking tennis ball found on basketball courts near City Hall about 10:30 a.m., WWJ/CBS Detroit reports. City Hall was briefly placed on lockdown.

Though the scare “turned out to be nothing,” city officials made the right call in reporting it because similar-looking devices can cause some damage, State Police Specialist Sgt. Ashland Bray.

“The danger of it could be close to maybe a large commercial firework going off,” Bray said.

Police think juveniles are probably responsible for leaving the suspicious looking item on the basketball court.

“Most likely it was probably juveniles…came up with something. Usually they find these things on the Internet and decided to make it,” Bray said. “If you ever come across anything like that, just leave it alone, call 9-11-, and the bomb squad will respond.”