BOZEMAN, Mont- Police said the department received four different reports of bomb threats within a two-day time frame in the Bozeman area.
Police said the first threat happened close to 12 pm on Thursday at a local office building on Valley Commons Drive. In a news release police stated that the threat was sent via email and pressured the owner to make a bitcoin transaction to stop the bomb from being sent off.
“It was kinda an extortion,” said Bozeman Police Detective Robert Vanuka. “There was a demand for money to be paid by cryptocurrency or bitcoins and if their demands were not met they were going to detonate.”
The building was evacuated by the owner of the business who called law enforcement. Ununiformed officers in unmarked cars arrived at the scene to determine if the threat was credible. Head of Bozeman Police Detectives Cory Klumb said policed responded this way because the email stated if there was police presence the bomb would be set off.
“So it is something that we typically don’t do, but in order not to stir things up we tailor our response to what was in the email,” said Klumb.
Later in the day, two other email threats were made in Bozeman. Police would not release the name of the buildings but did say the threats were located on N Hanley and N Grand Avenue. Other places around Montana including Helena, Missoula, and Shelby also received threats. Bozeman police did not find a bomb and suspect the threats were related to the numerous email threats happening nationwide.
“There were a lot of things that allowed us to tie all of these things together,” said Klumb. “Like I said the broken English and the bitcoin and the same if we see authorities we will take action and those kinds of things.”
Police said after working with the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives the threats all seem to be sent by the same person and are not credible. They did not respond to the bomb threat made on Friday morning due to the similarities to the other emails.
Police advise anyone receiving any type of threat to contact police.
