Coloring books were in suspicious package that led to cancellation of Drag Queen Story Time: police

• By Dan Nephin/LNP | LancasterOnline

The suspicious package that prompted Lancaster Pride to cancel the Drag Queen Story Hour at the Lancaster Public Library on Saturday turned out to be a package of coloring books a staff member had been expecting.

Lancaster city police Chief Richard Mendez said two different K9s “alerted” on the package — meaning the dogs reacted to something they were trained to detect.

One of the K9s was with the city police and the other was with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.

“There were some inconsistencies in the labeling that raised some suspicion as well,” Mendez said.

The package contained coloring books from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Based on all the facts surrounding the package, law enforcement is not concerned that the package was placed there with any criminal intention, as the origin, contents and recipient at the library were all verified,” Mendez said.

Mendez said city police and the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office continue to investigate who is responsible for making bomb threats after the event’s cancellation was announced.

Shortly after noon Saturday, the bomb threat was sent via email, specifically naming the drag event as the reason. The threat also included the home addresses of the executive director of the library, the president of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Lancaster Pride and an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter.

Police evacuated the area, and streets and sidewalks were closed for about three hours.

Mendez did not give further details of that investigation. He answered questions posed to him and District Attorney Heather Adams after the two met Monday.

Mendez said there are many reasons K9s can alert on a package that later turns out to be innocuous.

“Some of these reasons include, but are not limited to, being next to items in storage or coming in contact with items during shipping that have the chemical compounds the K9 has been trained to alert to,” he said.