About 8 a.m. a student called ISU Police Department and reported a suspicious item laying in the grass between Parks Library and the Hub, west an emergency phone.

“It was a cylindrical item about the size of a water bottle in a grayish-greenish sock,” said Darin Van Ryswyk, investigations captain for ISU Police. “Officers took a look at it. They decided to follow pretty cautious federal guidelines like set up a perimeter, call for assistance.”

Police began roping off the front entrance of Parks Library, the Hub and a portion of the sidewalks leading to those areas.

Justin Pearson, sophomore in political science, said police were directing students away from the sidewalk but students were still going in and out the side doors of The Hub at 10:18 a.m. By 10:28 a.m., Pearson was sitting outside with other students when police told all students who were outside to go inside of Parks Library.

Van Ryswyk said state fire marshals were on the scene a little after 10:30 a.m., and the concern was a possible explosive.

At the time, the front entrance of the library was closed as well as a portion of the sidewalk in front of Morrill Hall and Beardshear Hall. The Hub was closed and evacuated and most of the grass and sidewalks were blocked off between T=the Hub, the library, Beardshear, Durham and Marston halls.

“From each of the buildings, they kept the entrances away from the area of concern,” Van Ryswyk said. “The east fire exit of the library was open for students.”

Van Ryswyk said the suspicious object remained untouched until state fire marshals took a look at the item and set up a plan of action. Van Ryswyk also said the state fire marshals were better equipped to handle such a situation.

“They look at it and say: ‘It’s this big, so now this is how big your scene needs to be,’” Van Ryswyk said. “And that’s not something that I look at and say: ‘Do I need 50 feet or do I need 200 yards?’”

About 10:50 a.m., the a fire marshals began suiting up to investigate the sock-covered object closer. Van Ryswyk said he does not know how fire marshals gathered the object. Van Ryswyk did not see a robot, a machine typically used by the state fire marshals’ bomb squad to detect and disarm suspected bombs.

Van Ryswyk speculated that state fire marshals will take the object to a rural area or a lab to further investigate. ISU Police contacted the club that organized the Zombie Apocalypse events, which is known to use white socks, and asked if anyone recognize the object.

Van Ryswyk said the organization determined the object “absolutely did not look like theirs.”

“Right now, they’re still going to work on it, find out what exactly it is — if it’s a prop, if it’s something related to research and it fell off a cart or out of someone’s bag,” Van Ryswyk said. “It’s better safe than sorry.”