Officials at the State University of Fredonia were less than pleased a minor event last week became a major story in a matter of minutes. It happened on Sept. 29 when a student arrived at his car in the Dods Hall lot and noticed something did not seem right.

Social media always has a way of exaggerating any alert – and the news media is usually quick to report it.

“It was a student who believed his car had been tampered with and upon looking at the vehicle heard some kind of a clicking noise and reported that to University Police,” said university Director of Public Relations Michael Barone a day after the incident. “They then have no choice than to play it extremely safe and assume a worst case scenario and that’s all that really occurred.”

Turns out, there really was no problem after all. But in a world of recent shootings and tragic incidents, it always is better to be proactive than reactive.

Everything worked out for the best – even if stress levels were on the high side for a short period of time.