The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn was evacuated Saturday evening after a possible bomb threat was called in, sending police officers to the campus on Oakwood Boulevard and prompting a search of the building with help from a bomb-sniffing dog. The museum said the threat came through its own switchboard, and that police were called immediately afterward.
Accounts of the incident vary slightly in how serious it was described. According to FOX 2 Detroit, the Dearborn Police Department referred to it as a possible bomb threat, while The Henry Ford itself called it an active threat. Police asked the public to avoid the immediate area and allow emergency personnel to investigate safely, and officials said the search involved facility security personnel working alongside law enforcement.
The evacuation happened after normal museum hours, but a wedding was reportedly underway on campus at the time, according to attendees cited by FOX 2 Detroit. In a statement, the museum said it made the decision to evacuate all campus events out of an abundance of caution rather than limit the response to a single building or gathering.
Museum Says Safety Came First
The Henry Ford said the safety of its staff, students, volunteers and guests was its main priority and that it would remain vigilant against potential threats to people, visitors and venues. As of 8:30 p.m. Saturday, police and other agencies were still using the bomb-sniffing dog and other methods to clear the building, per the same FOX 2 Detroit report. Museum officials said they hoped to resume operations Sunday, according to CBS News.
Not the First Scare on Ford Grounds
Threats and suspicious items have disrupted Dearborn-area Ford sites before. In May 2017, police, firefighters and Detroit Bomb Squad members responded to a Ford plant in Dearborn after a suspicious package was found on campus, as reported by MLive. Employees who had been evacuated returned to work by about noon that day after Ford spokesman Mike Moran said the package had been deemed safe.
More than a year later, in December 2018, police investigated bomb threats at five metro Detroit locations in a single stretch, including Henry Ford Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, DMC Harper University Hospital, the 36th District Court and the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. WXYZ reported that police believed those threats had been phoned in, and that Henry Ford Hospital was ultimately checked and cleared. It remains unclear from Saturday’s incident whether investigators found any device or threat inside the museum, and no confirmed reopening time has been verified beyond the museum’s stated hope to resume operations Sunday.
