Police investigate bomb threats at schools, businesses across US, including Idaho

Authorities say bomb threats sent Thursday to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across the U.S. — including Boise, Garden City and Mountain Home — appear to be a hoax.

Law enforcement agencies dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible.

Between 11 and 11:30 a.m. police were called to investigate emailed threats to two businesses in Boise and one in Garden City. The businesses targeted were an electrical business, an automotive business and Cumulus, which owns KBOI, KIZN, KKGL, KQFC and KTIK radio stations.

Don Morin, market manager for Cumulus in Boise, said the subject line was “unassuming” and that although the contents of the email included a bomb threat if they didn’t give money, he thought it was spam. To be safe, he notified police.

“We have really tight spam filters. It’s really rare that anything like this gets through,” Morin said. Business went on as usual Thursday at the Cumulus office.

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. Boise police and the Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff’s office said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible.

The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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, Missouri, about 55 miles northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia.

In Idaho, two Mountain Home schools— Hacker Middle School and Bennett Mountain High School — were closed Thursday due to threats of violence made via email, Mountain Home School District Superintendent James Gilbert wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday night. It’s unclear if that was connected to the bomb threats around the country.

Threats were sent to other schools in the Northwest this week.

In Clarkston, Washington, on Wednesday, 800 students were evacuated due to a bomb threat, according to the Lewiston Tribune. Lincoln Middle School and Heights Elementary in Clarkston were evacuated.

The bomb threats also prompted evacuations Thursday 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.

There is nothing to validate the threat was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999, according to sheriff’s spokesman Mike Taplin.

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.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the call letters for a local radio station. They are KKGL.

This story was originally published December 13, 2018 at 11:35 AM.