Disabled device found inside student's room at Penn State Altoona, officials say

ALTOONA – After receiving a tip, Penn State Altoona campus police found a disassembled explosive device in a student's dorm room, according to a criminal complaint.

Connor Chinoy, a freshmen enrolled in the university's Railroad Transit Engineering Program, is charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor offense.

An investigation began when someone reported concerns on Penn State University's behavioral threat management team's website, saying a person overheard an Altoona campus freshman claim that he had built a bomb, according to the complaint.

The team reported the submission to campus police, who identified Chinoy and located him in his dorm room in Spruce Hall.

The offense description said police notified a Penn State University Bomb Tech, saying officers would keep the tech updated with their findings.

When officers knocked on Chinoy's door, he admitted that the threats were about him, and that he told his friends about a bomb a few weeks prior, the complaint explained.

It said he then claimed he did not continue to engineer the explosive, and that it was only a prank.

Police said they found nine spray cans with duct tape remnants on the outsides.

The complaint said Chinoy's roommate told police he knew that he had built an explosive, and that Chinoy told him that he was going to "blow it up," at the Seminar Forest or some place where no one was around.

Another Spruce Hall resident told police that Chinoy had mentioned seeing a video of paint cans being blown up, and that he thought it was a "neat idea."

Campus police officers, by policy, could not comment on the findings.

Shari Routch, senior director of the university's strategic communications and marketing, said campus police do not believe anyone was in danger at any time.

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