WEST BEND — The cause of the bomb scare that rocked West Bend's Regner Park Thursday turned out to be 10 pipes a woman says she placed throughout the park for a scavenger hunt, police said Friday.
Reports of 'pipe bombs' in the park shut down the music event called Regner Rocks that day. Milwaukee County bomb units spread across the area and discovered some of the suspicious items, but confirmed then they were not explosive.
On Friday, the West Bend Police Department said in a statement that those suspicious items turned out to be simply pipes. And that they found 10 of them in total.
Police say a 51-year-old woman from Ozaukee County told officers she intended to have a scavenger hunt at a later date and, in preparation, scattered the pipes across Regner Park. She told officers she did not tell anyone she did that and that she was unaware a concert was scheduled for that day.
Police did not say if anything was inside the pipes.
The police department however is referring a criminal charge of Disorderly Conduct to the Washington County District Attorney’s Office.
The police department says the park is safe and open to the public, writing Friday that "investigators are confident we recovered all the pipes the woman placed in the park. If anyone sees any package or item that appears suspicious, they should not handle the item, and should call law enforcement immediately."
