A preschool and day care at the United Methodist Church, 207 S. Court St., was evacuated Thursday. The church received a bomb threat, sent by e-mail. The building was evacuated while police searched it. Eventually investigators determined the threat was part of a global hoax. There were several other threats in the area as well.
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There were several local bomb threats officials believe were connected to a national wave of threats Thursday and another they believe was not.
The Marysville Division of Police and the Union County Sheriff’s Office are investigating a pair of bomb threats they believe to be connected to a nationwide hoax that sent emailed threats to hundreds of businesses and schools as well as civic and government buildings Thursday. Threats were emailed to the United Methodist Church, 207 S. Court St., Marysville, and to Hochstetler Buildings LLC, 7927 Memorial Dr., Plain City.
Law enforcement officials in Madison County are investigating a bomb threat at Tolles Technical School, 7877 U.S. Route 42 South, Plain City.
“It was not part of what we are seeing globally, where the threats are emailed,” Tolles superintendent Emmy Beeson said this morning.
Both the threat at the church and Hochstetler Buildings were received by email at about 1 p.m.
Tony L. Brooks, deputy chief for the Marysville Division of Police, said recent information provided by state and federal law enforcement agencies advised the threats are not credible.
Marysville Division of Police was contacted at 12:58 p.m. about a possible threat at United Methodist Church. Police said church employees received a suspicious email from an unknown subject “threatening to detonate an explosive device if a specific amount of electronic currency was not sent to a link that had been provided in the email.”
“The email was very vague and did not mention the church by name, only referring to it as ‘the business,’” according to a release from police.
Officials said the church, which houses a preschool, was evacuated. Children were taken to the county office building while officers and staff searched the building.
“Nothing suspicious was found during the search,” according to the release.
Officials requested explosive detection dogs from Ohio Homeland Security and the Ohio State Highway Patrol “out of an abundance of caution.”
“A secondary search was performed using the K-9 Units and no explosives were located,” according to the release.
The incident is under investigation by the Marysville Division of Police.
Officials said they later learned this threat was part of the global email threat.
Evan Bishop, general manager at Hochstetler Building, said a threat was emailed to an address specifically reserved for business sales. He said the email was received at about 1 p.m., but not read until about 3 p.m.
The email instructed the company to wire $20,000 to a bitcoin account. It also claimed someone was watching the building and if they saw law enforcement approach, the bomb would be detonated.
The secretary who read the email initially believed it was a joke.
“There were no indications it was a joke,” Bishop said.
Law enforcement was contacted.
“We had units that responded to the call and nothing was found,” Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said.
When investigators arrived, they informed business officials the emails were part of a global hoax. Hochstetler Building gave employees the remainder of the day off.
“It is very frustrating, to say the least,” Patton said. “What we are hoping is that federal authorities will be able to trace the emails and backtrack them to see where they came from.”
He said his office is working with the local office of FBI. Patton said coordination, cooperation and communication will be the key to solving the threats.
Beeson said law enforcement officials determined the threat at Tolles was not part of the coordinated global hoax. She said the threat was received “first thing in the morning.” Additionally, she said the threat was not emailed to the school.
Tolles students were evacuated and taken to nearby Jonathan Alder High School.
“They were really great to work with. They even fed our students,” Beeson said. “Our staff followed the proper procedures and things went as smoothly as they could.”
She said investigators searched the building and no explosive devices were found.
“I don’t know what investigators would want me to say or not to say, but I can tell you that it was not part of that,” Beeson said.