Automated voicemails left at high schools around Wyoming threatening to detonate bombs and shoot up the school are a hoax that originated outside the country and pose no credible threat, multiple law enforcement agencies report.
That doesn’t mean they’re harmless or that they’re not taken seriously, said Chance Walkama, chief deputy of operations for the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office.
“There are people out there trying to disrupt our lives, and it’s very disturbing,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s to disrupt and scare and to create panic. We can never not take these threats seriously.”
In Laramie County, Burns Jr./Sr. High School and Pine Bluffs High were targeted, the local school district reports.
Although it was apparent fairly quickly that the threat wasn’t credible, the LCSO cleared the schools with a K-9, he said.
“Right away we were able to determine this was an out-of-the-country individual, and the call did not originate from our country,” Walkama said.
He said the caller, who left the voicemail late Tuesday night for school personnel to find Wednesday morning, had a voice that sounded computer-generated and foreign.
“It was one of those voicemails with a foreign accent and a robotic voice cover,” Walkama said.
The Threat
The voice said a bomb had been placed somewhere in the school and that if anyone reported it to police or tried to find the device, “there’s going to be a negative action,” Walkama said.
That negative action apparently was a threat of a school shooting, according to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office, which reported the same threat was made at Wheatland High School.
“A voicemail was left at 11:55 p.m. (Tuesday) from an apparent computer-generated foreign voice stating there were bombs placed in the school and they were scheduled to detonate at 1 p.m.,” the sheriff’s office reports. “The caller further states that if the bombs are moved, they would come shoot up the school.”
The LCSO also responded to assist the Platte County Sheriff’s Office with K-9 units to sweep Wheatland High School and a nearby elementary.
As in Lincoln County, the Platte County Sheriff’s Office deployed deputies and K-9 units to sweep Wheatland high and a nearby elementary school. While that was going on, students at both schools were put on lockdown.
“There is no reason to believe that the physical safety of any student or staff was ever in danger,” the PCSO reports.
The message left at Wheatland High “would be consistent” with the threat at the Laramie County schools, Walkama said.
Along with sweeping schools with K-9 units, surveillance cameras were also checked from the time school let out Tuesday until people arrived Wednesday, and it was determined nobody had been in or around the building, he said.
‘Immediately Deemed Not Credible’
The robotic out-of-the-country call also was reported to have been left at Upton High School, Worland High, Ten Sleep School, Saratoga High, and multiple other schools throughout Carbon County.
It’s likely whoever initiated the threats used a list of phone numbers for Wyoming high schools, Walkama said.
With the technology to create fake voices and use a computer to call from anywhere in the world, these types of threats are showing up more often, he said.
“We’ve had a lot of them, and they’re pretty much immediately deemed not credible,” he said. “We’re able to do that quickly.”
Even so, they’re always checked out to be sure.
“We do worry about the information, how it’s received, and how it’s causing folks to be concerned,” Walkama said. “We probably deal with these about three or four times a year, and we’re on track for that.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint who exactly makes these threats, he said, because they originate far outside the reach of local law enforcement. They’re reported to Homeland Security.
There also is a heightened law enforcement presence at and around schools for the rest of the week, Walkama said.
“People will see that increased presence because we do always want to be sure,” he said.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
