Bomb Scare Forces 800 From Coop

The Harvard Coop evacuated between 800 and 1000 people yesterday morning after an anonymous caller told police and a Boston television station that he had planted a bomb in the store.

Police and fire officials completed evacuating the store at 11:20 a.m. and then conducted a "thorough search," Haig H. Agababian, assistant general manager of the Coop, said yesterday. No explosives were found, police dispatcher Michael Walsh said yesterday.

Because Coop officials were worried that the patrons might panic if they knew of the bomb scare, they announced over the public address system that the evacuation was due to "construction problems," Agababian said.

"The resulting evacuation was orderly," he said.

An employee of WBZ (Channel 4) television, who asked not to be identified, said yesterday, "I got a call at about 11 a.m. from some guy who sounded like he was not entirely serious. The caller said that a number of Viet Nam veterans were angry about the way they were treated at the Coop. He said that a bomb was going to go off at the Coop, but he could not decide when."

Agababian said Cambridge police told him that the caller had claimed he was a Viet Nam veteran capable of making a bomb, but had not mentioned the Coop's service.

Agababian added, "This was obviously the action of a berserk person, a sick mind. It had no relation to service at the Coop."