Two bomb threats at the University of South Florida/Tampa closed the campus library and the college of medicine library September 8 and 22 respectively. The hoaxes came on the heels of two pipe-bomb explosions over the past month at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
University police called interim library director Derrie Perez at 5:30 a.m. September 8 and evacuated the few custodial workers who were in the building. By 7:30, when employees arrived, the library entrance had been cordoned off. Staff were allowed into the building shortly before 11 a.m., followed by the public shortly afterward, according to the university’s online newspaper, the Oracle. After the second threat in the early morning of September 22, the library was forced to open a half-hour late.
Police charged 33-year-old Mark Thomas September 28 with the USF threats, but they do not believe he is connected to the Florida A&M bombings.
Posted October 4, 1999.