A resident's attempt to get free wireless Internet was the cause of a bomb scare in downtown Carlisle late Tuesday, police said this afternoon.

Lt. Michael Dzezinski said an investigation showed that a "suspicious package" that authorities at first feared might be an explosive was in fact a wireless router in a container wrapped in tape with its antenna sticking out.

The device was found in the ground in the 100 block of West High Street around 6:30 p.m. Police closed nearby Dickinson Avenue where a state police explosives expert squad neutralized it four hours later.

Dzezinski said it was determined that a resident of a third-floor apartment had placed the router, wrapped to make it weatherproof, on a windowsill in an attempt to pick up free wireless Internet service from the nearby Bosler Memorial Library.

The device fell off the windowsill onto the sidewalk below where a witness found it and alerted police, he said. No criminal charges will be filed, Dzezinski said.