The Carterville Fire Chief was unamused by what he deemed a waste of resources in an incident Monday morning.

A suspicious package delivered to WSIL Channel 3 in Carterville forced a building evacuation and required the bomb squad to respond and remove the unknown item.

Crainville Police Chief Curtis Rogers said he received a report of a suspicious package around 9:15 a.m. Rogers immediately called in the Carterville Fire Department.

Carterville Fire Chief Bruce Talley said tests on the package came back negative for bombs and hazardous substances. He said there was a message on the package, but could not confirm what it said. The 16-square-inch box was removed from the scene around noon.

Talley said the package was hand-delivered and placed in WSIL’s mailbox. Then an employee brought the package into the building.

He said the employee realized the package did not look normal, and put it in a safe area. The employee was unharmed.

Rogers said Crainville, Williamson County, Carterville and SIU police departments; Carterville Fire Department and the Carbondale Police Bomb Squad were called to the scene. Talley said the FBI was present as well.

“We started isolating folks that were involved in the product movement,” Talley said.

“We pretty much evacuated the building to make sure we didn’t have another problem and basically took it from there as a hazardous materials type of event, realizing then we might have some law enforcement issues as well.”

SIU Police Department Cpl. Chad Beights, said the department used their Remotec Andros S6A robot to remove the package.

Beights said they used the robot through a control panel and remote frequencies to communicate with the hazardous material disposal team.

“Towards the end we actually used it to pick up the package and remove it from the building,” he said. “You can actually use it to handle an entire incident without sending anybody down range. We can actually disrupt packages with the robot itself… Everything can be done with the robot that a human can do and the idea is to save humans.”

Beights has used the robot for four years, and the department trains with it every two weeks, he said.

Talley said the incident was a waste of time and money, but still good practice. He said he will seek compensation for the wasted time and money.

Rogers said they wanted to be sure the package was safe before making any assumptions.

“Better be safe than sorry,” he said. “We don’t know what was contained in the package so we did the steps on the (hazardous material) side and on the possible bomb side.”

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @lukenozicka, or 536-3311 ext. 282.