Widespread bomb threat hoax a headache for North Jersey police

• Bomb threats were made to schools as businesses Thursday in seven communities throughout New Jersey.
• The FBI, the NYPD and authorities in New Jersey found no credible threats at any of the places targeted by the messages.
• The response to the threats put considerable strain on first responders throughout New Jersey.

A wave of email bomb threats that swept the nation and targeted several New Jersey towns on Thursday placed a temporary strain on police departments that assisted with school evacuations, bomb squad sweeps and searches using police dogs. 

Authorities are still searching for a culprit behind the bomb hoax that sought to extort bitcoin payments from schools, businesses and news outlets nationwide. And as the dust settled on Friday, police officials in Northern New Jersey remarked that the effort needed for a bomb threat response could leave departments short-staffed should another emergency occur simultaneously. 

“It’s very disruptive for everyone involved, from the police to the schools,” Fair Lawn Police Sgt. Brian Metzler said. “It puts everyone on edge.” 

Fair Lawn was one of at least seven New Jersey towns in which schools or businesses evacuated after receiving the threat. Metzler said both Radburn Elementary and Memorial Middle schools received bomb threats via email at about 2 p.m. Police arrived promptly to move students to the Fair Lawn Jewish Center while the Bergen County Sheriff's Office bomb squad searched the school. 

Bomb threats like the one on Thursday often require most of Fair Lawn’s on-duty police force to respond. Only a handful of officers are left for other emergencies, Metzler said. 

“It’s all hands on deck in a situation like that,” he said. “Everyone who was available went.” 

In Maywood, a furniture store on Howcroft Road received one of the bomb threats. Maywood police and fire responded promptly to evacuate the building and directed traffic while the county’s K-9 unit swept the building with bomb-sniffing dogs, Maywood Detective Sgt. Matthew Parodi said. 

The department sent five officers, when only two are on patrol for a typical shift, he said. 

“Every time we get a call like this we fully investigate, because we never know for sure until we can rule the threat out,” Parodi said. 

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Elsewhere in North Jersey, Verona police handled a bomb threat at the Huntington Learning Center. Surrounding businesses in the complex were evacuated while the Essex County Sheriff's Department bomb squad searched the building. 

And, in Wyckoff, a Main Street business also received a threat Thursday afternoon. 

The emails were sent to tens of thousands of targets in cities nationwide, including Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Detroit. Some of the emailed threats had the subject line: "Think Twice,” and others demanded a $20,000 bitcoin payment or else an explosive device in the targeted building would detonate. 

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USA Today reported that AppRiver, a Florida-based cybersecurity company, had traced the poorly worded emails, which used non-native English, to a server in Moscow. It was not clear whether the perpetrators were located in Russia or elsewhere in the world.

The New York City Police Department and FBI later deemed the widespread threats as not credible, though law enforcement agencies across the country continued to investigate.

“We encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent threat to society,” the FBI said in statement Thursday.  

By the end of the day, Bergen County’s bomb squad and K-9 unit had investigated multiple bomb threat reports. The overall cost incurred by the county was unknown Friday, but Bergen County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Bill Schievella noted that dispatching the units “are definitely an expense.” 

The last widespread bomb threat hoax to hit the region occurred in 2016, when at least 21 schools in Bergen and Passaic counties were disrupted. Bomb threats were made via phone in 14 North Jersey towns, with police reporting calls from a robotic voice using an anonymous phone number. 

Metzler said Thursday's episode, though a ruse, was still good practice for a real emergency. 

"We’re able to evaluate incidents like this and use it as a learning tool where can we improve our response time and such," he said.