Beeping Package Sends Hospital Into 2-Hour, Bomb-Alert Frenzy

UPS delivered a seemingly harmless, shoebox-size package about 10:30 a.m. yesterday to the rehabilitation department at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park. But a hospital employee carrying the package inside noticed an unusual sound: Beep, beep, beep.

And so began two hours of mayhem described by hospital and Montgomery County fire officials.

The employee rushed the package back to the loading dock. Emergency responders rushed to the scene. Explosives investigators put on bomb suits and X-rayed the package.

The hospital went into mini-disaster-alert mode: no ambulances, patients or doctors were allowed to enter the campus; traffic on nearby streets was diverted; and patients whose rooms were near the loading dock were moved to another part of the hospital.

"They had the parking lot all blocked off with police tape, many cruisers and officers directing traffic," said Judy Smith, who drove past the hospital about 11:15 a.m.

By 12:30 p.m., the episode was over. The package was determined to be not a bomb but a tracking device for Alzheimer's patients, fire spokesman Capt. Oscar Garcia said. The beeping was the sound of a dying battery inside the device.

"We apologize that other people were inconvenienced, but patient safety is our first priority," hospital spokeswoman Lydia Parris said.