Collegiate Times

A bomb threat forced shoppers and employees at the Christiansburg Wal-Mart to evacuate the scene yesterday afternoon.

Capt. Dalton Reid, public information officer for the Christiansburg Police Department, said a housekeeper found a note on the premises between 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and notified Wal-Mart management officials. The note, which was left on a bathroom stall, listed the location of a bomb and the time that it would detonate, Reid said. Store employees and customers quickly vacated the building and turned over control of the building to the Christiansburg Fire Department and other emergency personnel.

Blacksburg residents Alvin Underwood Jr., 22, and Jessica Broomfield, 19, were in the back of the grocery section by the milk when they said employees started telling them to leave.

?We left a buggy full of food . . . and her purse,? Underwood said.

It was shoulder-to-shoulder as employees and customers evacuated the store, he said. When they reached the parking lot, Broomfield was pushed to the ground, scraping her knee on the pavement. The crowd of employees and customers was directed to the back parking lot, where they waited for information. Some wrapped themselves in blankets, while others waited in their cars.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., bomb-sniffing dogs were canvassing the premises, Reid said.
Even though she expected the inspection of the store to take several more hours, Broomfield said she planned on staying until she could get her purse back.

The bomb threat congested traffic throughout the area.