Suspicious package in Chapel Hill was hoax

A suspicious device found in a mailbox in Chapel Hill was possibly a hoax, police said Friday.

Posted 5:45 p.m. Nov 4, 2011 — Updated 7:42 p.m. Nov 4, 2011

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A suspicious device found in a mailbox in Chapel Hill was possibly a hoax, police said Friday.

Sgt. Joshua Mecimore with the Chapel Hill Police Department said that a mail carrier found the unknown device inside a mailbox on Umstead Drive just before noon.

"The Durham County Bomb Unit responded and determined that the package was possibly a hoax, not a genuine explosive device," Mecimore said in a statement.

The scare prompted police to close Umstead Drive from Bradley Road to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to traffic for about three hours to resolve the matter.

The road has since been reopened.

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