Friday, December 14, 2018
Staff/wire report
WARREN
The Trumbull County Family Court was among locations across the country that received a bomb threat Thursday, causing the Main Avenue facility downtown to be evacuated about 2:30 p.m.
The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Family Court and searched for a bomb and found none. Everyone was allowed to return to the facility around 3:15 p.m., said Scott Bombeck, family court administrator.
One clue that the emailed threat might not be specific to the Trumbull County Family Court was learning that a court in Geauga County had also received an identical threat, Bombeck said.
Among those evacuated were the juveniles in the detention facility, who were taken from the facility in vans.
In fact, dozens of institutions across the country received email threats Thursday afternoon, causing evacuations and sweeps of buildings.
Authorities say bomb threats sent Thursday to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across the U.S. appear to be a hoax.
Law-enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible.
Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.” 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, Fla., 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.
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.
Across the country, some schools closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown because of the hoax. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Mo., about 55 miles northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia.
The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Ill., the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., 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, Pa. 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.