By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Maryland Heights police say a bomb scare at a hotel near Interstate 270 this Tuesday afternoon was probably part of an attempted hoax.
Authorities evacuated the Hampton Inn-Westport and a nearby office building.
The St. Louis County Bomb and Arson squad then used a robot to pull packages thought to contain explosives from a pickup truck in the hotel's parking lot. But the boxes were found to be empty.
Sergeant Joe Eagan is with the Maryland Heights Police Department.
"The person who was responsible for this apparently had some type of grudge against some type of officials in St. Charles county, in the court system, and apparently was going to use this as a hoax or a scare tactic," Eagan said.
Police say the suspect was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility Monday. They are not yet releasing the man's name.