 "Photo: Shelley Hiam")
A remote-controlled, battery-powered aircraft was mistaken for what could have been a bomb at the Oak Park Apartments on the corner of 45th and Duval streets Thursday.
Sgt. Kenny Wilson of the Austin Police Department's Bomb Squad said an Oak Park maintenance worker entered a resident's apartment at about 3 p.m. to find a jumble of batteries and wires - later found to be parts for the remote-controlled airplane - in the residence.
The worker called the police after he noticed the resident running from his apartment a short time later.
It was later determined that the resident was running to catch a bus.
At around 3:30 p.m., Claudia Cruise, an apartment resident, was woken by loud banging outside her apartment door.
"When I opened the door, a cop told me that there was a bomb threat and asked me to evacuate the building," Cruise said.
Wilson said Officer Chris Rybarski was the first to enter the building.
Rybarski went in dressed in a full bomb suit to take pictures of the alleged bomb so the squad could then examine the apparatus from a safe distance.
Rybarski's camera malfunctioned, however, and Officer Rob Nunez was then sent in.
The resident returned shortly, and after he was questioned, it became clear that the threat was a mistake, Wilson said.
He said the maintenance worker was right to have called the police.
"He did a great job," Wilson said. "We'd much rather come out on nothing, instead of it being a real emergency."
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