DETROIT Police barricaded a downtown Park Rapids grocery store for several hours Thursday after a hoax bomb threat was called in. It may be related to the latest Jamaican scam according to a report on the website dl-online.com.
A male caller reportedly telephoned the store about 10:15 am and told the receptionist, "I have some serious news."
The caller went on to say a bomb had been placed in "the Western Union box" near the store’s courtesy counter.
The receptionist said, ”Are you serious?” and placed the call on hold.
It then went to the store manager, who asked the same thing, Eilers said. He was told the bomb was set to detonate "in three hours," roughly 1 pm. He called police.
The store was barricaded and closed as police officers and several members of the Hubbard County Sheriff's Department descended on the building. The Law Enforcement Center is just down the block.
"We ended up tracking back, the telephone company called back and they’d done a circuit dump on all their stuff and they gave us an area code and partial phone number from Jamaica," a Detroit cop said.
Police are investigating a series of Western Union money transfers to Jamaica from the store.
