Buzzing Mailbox Shuts Down Town Square

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - They weren't bad vibes, but police say some unexplained buzzing coming from a mailbox in a central Pennsylvania town were cause enough to shut down the town square for a couple hours.

Bellefonte police Chief Shawn Weaver says the "vibrating noise, like an alarm going off" was reported about 10 a.m. Tuesday. Because police couldn't be sure what was causing it, Penn State bomb experts and state police were called in, and a section of downtown was cordoned off until about 12:30 p.m.

Officials say there was only one piece of mail in the box but someone had also dropped a medical alert pager into the receptacle. That's what was causing the noise.

Police don't yet know whether the device dropped accidentally or put there by a prankster.