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Police: False threat about gunman caused lockdowns

What turned out to be a false threat of a man with a gun heading to Glenbard North High School and an unlikely set of circumstances led to three schools in Carol Stream and Glendale Heights being placed on soft lockdown Friday morning, authorities said.

Carol Stream police received an anonymous call about 7:15 a.m. saying a man with a firearm was en route to Glenbard North at 990 Kuhn Road.

The threat was determined to be false, but the high school, as well as Americana Intermediate School and Glenside Junior High in Glendale Heights and all eight schools in Carol Stream School District 93, went into soft lockdown mode and did not allow anyone to enter or exit their buildings for several hours as a precaution.

Glendale Heights police Cmdr. Dennis Schar said the false threat may have been made by a 50-year-old Glendale Heights man whose family had reported him missing earlier that morning.

Police cleared the schools to end their lockdowns about 10:30 a.m. because the missing man had been found, authorities said.

Schar said Chicago police found the man and took him into custody after he got into a car accident in the city.

No charges had been filed as of Friday afternoon, but Schar said Glendale Heights police would like to interview the man to follow up on the missing person report.

School officials notified parents when the soft lockdowns began and ended with phone calls, emails, text messages and website posts.

At Glenbard North, spokeswoman Peg Mannion said regular classroom instructional activities continued inside the school during the lockdown, and there was limited disruption to the day.

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