Jail evacuated after man drops off suspicious container at Sheriff's Office

The DeKalb County Jail was evacuated Saturday after 46 year old Jimmy Mason Page dropped off a suspicious container on the front porch of the sheriff’s department. Page told a correctional officer that the contents were radioactive. It turns out that the container held a case of roadside reflective warning triangles. Page is charged with filing a false report (bomb threat).

The DeKalb County Jail was evacuated Saturday, July 10 after a homeless man dropped off a suspicious container on the front porch of the sheriff’s department. The man, 46 year old Jimmy Mason Page, told a correctional officer that the contents were radioactive. It turns out that the container held a case of roadside reflective warning triangles

July 10, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Jail was evacuated Saturday after a homeless man dropped off a suspicious container on the front porch of the sheriff’s department.

The man, 46 year old Jimmy Mason Page, told a correctional officer that the contents were radioactive. It turns out that the container held a case of roadside reflective warning triangles, which are often used by semi truck drivers during a breakdown on the highway.

Page is charged with filing a false report (bomb threat). His bond is $10,000 and he will make a court appearance July 29.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said the incident began at 11:14 a.m. Saturday when a shirtless white male came to the jail carrying a red box. After he laid the container on the front porch a correctional officer confronted him and asked what he was doing. The man said someone gave him the box and he thought it to be radioactive so he was going to leave it there at the jail. The man then turned and left. Due to the threat the correctional officer started evacuating the jail. All 76 inmates were removed from the building for their safety and taken to the exercise pen behind the jail. After central dispatch (911) was notified a Smithville Police Officer reported that he might know the suspect and found the man who was brought back to the jail and identified as Jimmy Mason Page.

Officers reviewed security video footage at the jail which confirmed that Page was the man who dropped off the container.

Page was charged with filing a false report (making a bomb threat) knowing that the threat was untrue and that it would evoke an emergency response (an evacuation of the jail) and place others in fear of bodily injury.

Sheriff Ray said he wants to thank the Smithville Police and Fire Departments, DeKalb EMS, and the Central Dispatch team for their assistance. City firefighters and officers blocked off the area near the jail. DeKalb EMS set up a staging area close by as a precaution. A device was used to check the suspicious container for radioactivity before it was opened and detected none.