Metro Police: Nationwide bomb hoaxes reach Las Vegas

Published Thu, Dec 13, 2018 (2:36 p.m.)

Updated Thu, Dec 13, 2018 (6:02 p.m.)

A series of bomb threats sent across the United States today reached the Las Vegas area, according to Metro Police.

The threatening emails sent to local businesses were “similar to those reported nationally,” Metro said.

Las Vegas investigators had not found any devices as of Thursday afternoon, police said. The threats have also been deemed not credible by authorities across the country.

Still, police in Las Vegas responded to several locations and remained at some of them Thursday afternoon, said Metro Officer Aden OcampoGomez. Though deemed false, the threats still had to be vetted, he said.

OcampoGomez could not comment on how many locations received the messages. Details relating to the police response was also not immediately available, since the investigation was ongoing, he said.

Similarly, across the country, hundreds of locations had received similar messages, prompting officials to evacuate dozens of building, to include campuses. Other schools went on lockdown or were dismissed early.

The Associated Press reported that the messages were written poorly and authorities had compared them to the Nigerian prince email scam.

Some of them, which were sent from spoofed email accounts, were titled “Think Twice.” The messages claimed that a small bomb had been planted in the building and only a $20,000 payment in cryptocurrency would stop the messenger from detonating it.

City Hall in Aurora, Illinois, and a courthouse near Atlanta also were emptied, as well as newspaper offices in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Florida and Idaho also were affected, as were New Orleans and Anchorage, Alaska.

“We are aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities across the country, and we remain in touch with our law enforcement partners to provide assistance,” the FBI said in a statement. “As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Back to top

SHARE