Suspicious packages in courthouse prove to be Christmas lights

OTTAWA — A pair of gift-wrapped packages under a Christmas tree didn’t bring any yuletide joy Friday morning. Instead, they sent workers at the Putnam County Courthouse running out of the building for fear of a bomb.Little more than an hour later, the packages were imploded at the Putnam County Fairgrounds. When investigators looked at the remains of the packages, they weren’t amused with what they found: Two boxes of pre-packaged Christmas lights.“Somebody obviously knew they’d gain some attention this way. They knew what we’d do and how we’d respond to something like that,” Putnam County Sheriff James Beutler said. “To be on the safe side, we blew them up to make sure there weren’t any type of triggering devices or explosives in them, and there wasn’t. Oh, obviously it was a very deliberate act.”Courthouse employees already faced heightened security this week, as former death row inmate Kenneth Richey was scheduled to plead in the death of a 2-year-old girl in 1986. That hearing, slated for Thursday, was postponed when Richey required medical attention with a heart problem.Most workers at the building were already out on an extended lunch when sheriff’s deputies gave the order for a full-scale evacuation around noon, county Administrator Jessica Trinko said.  “They came in and called for us to get out immediately,” Trinko said. “Everyone evacuated outside. It was a ‘get out of here immediately.’ It was not like a filing out; it was a very rapid evacuation of the courthouse.”County employees first spotted the extra packages under a Christmas tree on the second floor of the courthouse around 11 a.m. A sheriff’s deputy scanned the packages with a portable metal detector, which indicated metal in the packages, Putnam County Sheriff James Beutler said. The second floor was evacuated until the Lima Police Department’s bomb squad arrived on scene to X-ray the packages. The scan found “massive amounts of electronics in both packages,” Beutler said, and the evacuation was ordered.Investigators aren’t sure how long the packages were under the tree or who placed them there. Beutler said deputies are reviewing courthouse security tapes in an attempt to answer both questions.“Once they carried the packages out, they gave the ‘all clear,’” Trinko said. “They asked each one of the offices to make sure there were no suspicious packages anywhere.”No other suspicious packages were found.