Beeping object investigation briefly closes downtown road

Highland Avenue closed 30 mins.; suspicious object found to be harmless

MADISON, Wis. — Police said an investigation into a suspicious object Saturday morning closed a downtown roadway for less than 30 minutes.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department said it received a report of a beeping sound coming from a trash can outside the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research building at 1111 Highland Ave.

UWPD spokesman Marc Lovicott said at about 11 a.m., a UWPD officer along with K-9 Odin — an explosives detecting police dog — arrived at the scene, heard the beeping and determined it was too dangerous to continue investigation and the Dane County Bomb Squad was requested.

After examining the contents of the trash can, the squad located the beeping object, according to the report. Odin went to work but did not detect any explosives.

“It was determined that the object — which was some sort of small electronic device — was harmless,” Lovicott said.

Highland Avenue was closed to traffic temporarily but was reopened at 11:30 a.m.