Bomb threat empties West Memphis Walmart

Bomb threat empties West Memphis Walmart

False alarm triggered by prank caller

news@theeveningtimes.com

Shopping came to a standstill at the West Memphis Walmart Wednesday evening. A bomb threat was phoned into the store, shaking up the employee that answered the phone, and bringing a multi-agency response to the retailer.

The call came into police at 5:10 p.m., prompting police to order the store cleared. Shoppers and workers were told to evacuate. After an intense hourlong search with nothing found, the store was reopened.

West Memphis Police spokesman, Enforcement and Criminal Investigation Divisions Commander Captain Joe Baker recounted the event.

They called into a line inside the store,” said Baker.

“The employee heard ‘bomb in the store’ and then was blurry on what was said after that.”

The phone number has so far been hard to trace. It was masked in a way similar to IRS scam calls or other fraudsters use to dupe call recipients. Police continued attempts Thursday morning to track down the source of the call.

“The number they called from was out of Texas, but it appeared to be a ‘voice over IP’ number,” said Baker. “We couldn’t trace it to any current number, so it could have been a calling app. We have not been able to identify the caller based on the number. In these kinds of situations, it is the incredibly hard to track.”

Baker walked through the bomb search efforts at Walmart. A Sheriff’s Department bomb dog, a black Labrador retriever named Buster, worked with handler, Deputy Briggs Keeton.

Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, Enforcement Division Chief George Blair, detailed the bombsearching process.

“We send the handler with the dog,” said Blair. “They went down each aisle and look for suspicious packages and the dog will indicate on any explosive types, even one disguised to look like it fits in.”

“We had officers go up there and clear the store,” explained Baker. “We used the Crittenden County bomb dog to sweep the store. When everything was clear we released the store at 6:10 p.m.”

“We are not sure of the motive,” said Baker. “If it was a hoax or whatever, there was nothing going on at the store that made any motive obvious.”

By John Rech