By Kari Lucin, staff writer

A woman carried 14 boxes and bags of household garbage, old clothes and toys as well as fireworks and boxes of bullets into the Freeborn County Government Center on Tuesday before being questioned.

&8220;Beginning shortly after 11 a.m. a local resident with well-documented emotional problems&8221; began making trips into the courthouse through the Broadway Street entrance, said County Administrator Ron Gabrielsen.

She set them on top of the information desk and left them there. At 5 p.m. a custodian brought the matter to the attention of Sue Phillips of the administration office, who called the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office.

County officials were able to identify the woman from courthouse video surveillance tapes, but have not yet decided whether to pursue action.

&8220;Appropriate actions will be taken against her,&8221; Gabrielsen said.

Though no one was hurt and the exact intentions of the woman remain unclear, the incident has prompted Gabrielsen to tighten courthouse security.

&8220;Each and every one of us should be grateful there was not a bomb or an incendiary device,&8221; Gabrielsen wrote to county employees. &8220;If you see something suspicious, something out of place, something out of the ordinary, immediately report it to your department head. Feel free to get any law enforcement officer involved.&8221;

The Government Center features a security alarm system so that some key employees can simply push a button alerting all available officers to report to the employee’s location.

People need badges to get into restricted areas of the courthouse.

One of the other security features of the Government Center is that it only has three entrances, one of which is the door to the Licensing Center. It can be cut off from the rest of the building by locking down an elevator, so for security purposes there are mainly two entrances to deal with.

Security cameras are set at every entrance.

Since the incident, Gabrielsen has stepped up efforts to educate county employees about security issues.

&8220;We’re going to remind everybody that we can’t be lax anymore, we have to start challenging people,&8221; Gabrielsen said. &8220;We’ve had incidents where county employees have been threatened.&8221;

(Contact Kari Lucin at kari.lucin@albertleatribune.com or 379-3444.)