Suspicious powder deemed
harmless
Tribune staff reports
Published
December 24, 2002, 1:20 PM CST
A
suspicious white powder that shut down a five-square-block area of
Lincoln Park and disrupted traffic across the North Side for about
two hours at midday turned out to be nothing more harmless than
flour or, more likely, the chalk used to mark jogging paths,
authorities said.
The substance was placed on the ground,
near a west entrance to Lincoln Park Zoo, by a local running club
this past weekend, Chicago Fire Commissioner James Joyce
said.
Earlier,
about 11 p.m., police and firefighters declared a hazardous
materials alert and closed the zoo and a section of Lincoln Park as
they investigated a report of a suspicious substance found near the
intersection of Webster Avenue and Stockton Drive.
Streets in
the area also were closed, as were southbound and northbound exit
and entrance ramps of Lake Shore Drive near Lincoln
Park.
Authorities looked at three piles of the substance and
at about 1 p.m. held a news conference to announce their findings.
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
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