What appeared to be a suspicious package inside a newspaper bin near Bolton Dining Commons kept University Police occupied for more than two hours Monday afternoon.

“It looks to be part of the working mechanism of the newspaper box,” University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said Monday.

The top inner portion of a Collegiate Readership newspaper bin fell into the bin, Williamson said. The portion that police described as “suspicious” was round and pink with several black stripes, according to a video police showed reporters after the incident. There appeared to be a red cord attached to or near the pink object.

Police had a bomb-detecting dog and the bomb unit’s robot on the scene.

Williamson said police received a call from a female student at 4:40 p.m. He said the student and her friend saw the pink object, went back to their dorm and told their residence assistant. The RA told the students to call the police.

Williamson said even though the object was not dangerous, “this student did the proper thing.”

He said the police responded immediately, and by the time they arrived at Bolton, the 60 students inside of the dining hall had been moved to the “extreme north side” of the building.

Police investigated the scene before the bomb unit arrived. Williamson said he got within eight feet of the newspaper bin to take pictures of the object.

Kimberly Gittings, a freshman from Lilburn, was in Bolton during the investigation.

She said she saw a police officer at the entrance when she went in to eat. She said by the time she got her food, part of the building was closed to students, but the students were unaware of the investigation.

“I had no idea … just kept hearing ‘bomb threat.’ It was all I knew,” she said.

Tim Phillips, a senior manager with Food Services sent a brief e-mail at 5:38 p.m. to meal plan customers telling them Bolton was temporarily closed.

J. Michael Floyd, director of Food Services who was with police throughout the investigation, told reporters that the dining hall would reopen at 7 p.m.

The afternoon temperature was cold and Food Services employees brought the police officers a thermos of coffee and paper cups.

After the investigation, Williamson said the University did not use UGAAlert, the emergency notification system, because the incident was “isolated” and police secured the perimeter around the object under consideration.

Ryan Houchens, a freshman from Stuart, Fla., walked by the scene. When a photographer told Houchens there was an investigation into a suspicious package, Houchens said sarcastically, “I love this UGAAlert system.

It’s amazing.”