False alarm prompts police action at credit union

Written by Mori Kessler
January 31, 2015
Armed officers respond to a suspected emergency at Goldenwest Credit Union, St. George, Utah, Jan. 31, 2015 | Reader-submitted photo, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Passersbys on Riverside Drive were alarmed to see police officers, some armed with automatic rifles, in the parking lot of the new Goldenwest Credit Union Saturday afternoon. The officers were responding to an alarm set off from within the credit union and were unable to make contact with anyone inside, so they approached the incident as an emergency situation.

In the end, the incident was a false alarm and an accident, St. George Police Sgt. Rich Triplett said.

An officer stand by his patrol car blocking an entrance into the Goldenwest Credit Union parking lot. He and other officers are responding to a potential incident inside the credit union that turned out to be a false alarm, St. George, Utah, Jan. 30, 2015 | Reader-submitted photo, St. George News
An officer stands by his patrol car, blocking an entrance into the Goldenwest Credit Union parking lot, St. George, Utah, Jan. 31, 2015 | Reader-submitted photo, St. George News

At approximately 12:50 p.m., a credit union employee bumped the panic alarm by accident, he said. When police called the credit union, no one answered. It was learned after the fact that there were problems with the phone line.

“When we couldn’t make contact inside, we approached it as an actual situation,” Triplett said.

The officers pulled into the parking and armed themselves with rifles as a precaution.

A St. George News reader who took photos of the event from across the street said it looked like an officer was pointing a gun at someone in the parking lot at one point, but Triplett said that wasn’t the case.

An individual pulled into the parking lot before officers could make contact with people inside and was asked to wait in the vehicle until police figured out what was happening, Triplett said.

Employees at Goldenwest Credit Union said they were unable to comment as a matter of corporate policy.

This report is based on preliminary information provided by law enforcement or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mori Kessler serves as a Senior Reporter for St. George News, having previously contributed as a writer and Interim Editor in 2011-12, and an assistant editor from 2012 to mid-2014. He began writing news as a freelancer in 2009 for Today in Dixie, and joined the writing staff of St. George News in mid-2010. He enjoys photography and won an award for photojournalism from the Society of Professional Journalists for a 2018 photo of a bee inspector removing ferals bees from a Washington City home. He is also a shameless nerd and has a bad sense of direction.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @MoriKessler@STGnews

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3 Comments

  • Brenda January 31, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    No comments ?

  • ladybugavenger February 1, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    It was fun st George news but with the people wanting it to be Mormon friendly and sensored and my fellow commenters not commenting, this paper has become the spectrum. Boring.

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