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False bomb threat prompts search of courts in Ogden

Posted at 5:14 PM, Apr 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-05 19:14:46-04

OGDEN, Utah – Trained canines, military personnel and a number of law enforcement agencies took to the district and justice courts in Ogden Thursday morning following a bomb threat.

It started with a 911 call in Ogden just after 9 a.m. Thursday morning.

”Making these kinds of threats falls into felony level threats,” said Lt. Tim Scott with the Ogden City Police Department.

Ogden PD sent out a request for canines, prompting agencies from across Northern Utah to join forces and prepare for the worst.

”Threats like this could potentially be a terroristic threat,” Scott said.

Officers said the phone call was vague, but it was enough for them to take any and all precautions.

”There wasn’t enough details in the call itself to lend a lot of credibility to it,” Scott said. “But we just want to use precaution especially when we’re dealing with a building of this size… On any given day there’s hundreds of people in each one of these buildings,” he added.

Floor by floor and room by room, trained canines searched the buildings and surrounding area.

“We haven’t found anything specific in the way of packages, devices, anything suspicious,” Scott said.

Officers were able to clear the building without issue, but they said these threats are not taken lightly.

“They could potentially have federal ramifications,” Scott said.

Now officers will work to track down the caller.

“We have our crime center tracking down the digital footprint of that phone call,” Scott said. “Hopefully we can get some leads on that and find out who prompted this whole situation,” he added.

The search lasted about three hours, and the building was cleared just after noon Thursday.