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Authorities:
Wave of
hoax
bomb
threats
made
across
US
By
MICHAEL
R. SISAK
APNews.com
NEW
YORK - A
wave of
bomb
threats
emailed
Thursday
to
hundreds
of
schools,
businesses
and
government
buildings
across
the U.S.
triggered
searches,
evacuations
and fear
— but
there
were no
signs of
explosives,
and
authorities
said the
scare
appeared
to be a
crude
extortion
attempt.
Law
enforcement
agencies
across
the
country
dismissed
the
threats,
saying
they
were
meant to
cause
disruption
and
compel
recipients
into
sending
money
and were
not
considered
credible.
Some
of the
emails
had the
subject
line:
“Think
Twice.”
They
were
sent
from a
spoofed
email
address.
The
sender
claimed
to have
had an
associate
plant a
small
bomb in
the
recipient’s
building
and that
the only
way to
stop him
from
setting
it off
was by
making
an
online
payment
of
$20,000
in
Bitcoin.
“We
are
currently
monitoring
multiple
bomb
threats
that
have
been
sent
electronically
to
various
locations
throughout
the
city,”
the New
York
City
Police
Department’s
counterterrorism
unit
tweeted.
“These
threats
are also
being
reported
to other
locations
nationwide
& are
NOT
considered
credible
at this
time.”
Other
law
enforcement
agencies
also
dismissed
the
threats,
which
were
written
in a
choppy
style
reminiscent
of the
Nigerian
prince
email
scam.
The
Palm
Beach
County,
Florida,
sheriff’s
office
and the
Boise,
Idaho,
police
said
they had
no
reason
to
believe
that
threats
made to
locations
in those
areas
were
credible.
One of
the
emails
wound up
in a
spam
filter,
Boise
Police
Chief
William
Bones
said.
The
FBI said
it is
assisting
law
enforcement
agencies
that are
dealing
with the
threats.
“As
always,
we
encourage
the
public
to
remain
vigilant
and to
promptly
report
suspicious
activities
which
could
represent
a threat
to
public
safety,”
the FBI
said in
a
statement.
Thursday’s
scare
came
less
than two
months
after
prominent
Democratic
officials
and
CNN’s
Manhattan
offices
were
targeted
with
package
bombs.
The
suspect
in that
case,
Cesar
Sayoc,
is in
jail
while
awaiting
trial.
In
2015, an
emailed
bomb
threat
prompted
different
reactions
from the
nation’s
two
largest
public
school
systems.
The Los
Angeles
school
system
closed
down
under
threat
of a
mass
attack,
but New
York
City
officials
quickly
saw it
as a
hoax.
In
the wake
of
Thursday’s
emails,
some
schools
across
the
country
closed
early
and
others
were
evacuated
or
placed
on
lockdown.
Authorities
said a
threat
emailed
to a
school
in Troy,
Missouri,
about 55
miles
(88
kilometers)
northeast
of St.
Louis,
was sent
from
Russia.
The
bomb
threats
also
prompted
evacuations
at city
hall in
Aurora,
Illinois,
the
offices
of the
News &
Observer
in
Raleigh,
North
Carolina,
a
suburban
Atlanta
courthouse
and
businesses
in
Detroit.
“Organizations
nationwide,
both
public
and
private,
have
reported
receiving
emailed
bomb
threats
today,”
Michigan
State
Police
spokeswoman
Shannon
Banner
said.
“They
are not
targeted
toward
any one
specific
sector.”
Penn
State
University
notified
students
via a
text
alert
about
threats
to a
half-dozen
buildings
and an
airport
on its
main
campus
in State
College,
Pennsylvania.
In an
update,
the
school
said the
threat
appeared
to be
part of
a
“national
hoax.”
Officials
at
Columbine
High
School
in
Colorado
were
dealing
Thursday
with a
bomb
threat
of a
different
sort.
Students
were
being
kept
inside
for the
rest of
the
school
day
after
someone
called
in a
bomb
threat
against
the
school.
The
Jefferson
County,
Colorado,
Sheriff’s
Office
said the
caller
claimed
to have
placed
explosive
devices
in the
school
and to
be
hiding
outside
with a
gun.
Sheriff’s
spokesman
Mike
Taplin
said
nothing
was
found at
Columbine,
where 12
students
and a
teacher
were
killed
by two
students
in 1999.
Two
dozen
other
Colorado
schools
were
also
temporarily
placed
on
lockout,
meaning
their
doors
were
locked
but
classes
continued
normally,
as the
threat
was
investigated.
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