STILLWATER, Okla. – A woman is in protective custody after quite a scare in Stillwater on Wednesday morning.
Officials said she walked into an elementary school and said she was there to “take the kids to heaven.”
It was just before eight in the morning that classes were cut early at Westwood Elementary.
“I went to the kitchen, made coffee,” said Carolyn Vandeventer with two grandchildren that attend Westwood. “Looked out, and there was police cars and lights lined up down the street.”
Without warning, she and her grandkids were told to leave their home.
“Had a knock on the door, and a plain-clothed officer said ‘You have to evacuate.'”
Carolyn lives across from Westwood, where a bomb scare had just shut the school down.
“There was a woman there who had no children at the school, and she had made a statement that she was there to take the kids to heaven,” said Captain Kyle Gibbs with Stillwater Police. “At the time she was detained, she was carrying a purse, and a wire could be seen hanging out of that purse.”
That wire sparked an investigation, with an OHP bomb squad called in for support.
“The bomb squad was here, the robot was roaming around the yard,” Vandeventer said. “I was terrified. I just didn’t know what to think.”
Carolyn and her grandchildren filled her car and left.
Westwood students soon filed down the street to the Career Tech center.
“It was like a machine. Our administrators gave very clear directions,” said Gay Washington, interim superintendent with Stillwater Schools. “Our office staff could not have done a better job.”
In the end, all was cleared.
The wire in the purse deemed not to be a threat.
The woman is now in protective custody after undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.
Police said she’s likely to be sent to an in-patient facility.
Her name has not been released.
The woman also reportedly made similar remarks that her family was “in heaven.”
Police obtained a search warrant for her home and found her family members were safe and sound.