Ephrata PD chief says EMS bomb threat unfounded

EPHRATA — A bomb threat reported late Monday night targeting Ephrata Middle School was determined to be unfounded, according to Ephrata Police Chief Erik Koch. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office log shows the call came in at 9:24 p.m., with the caller claiming a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. However, Koch said the details quickly raised red flags. 

“It was an odd one, it was a bomb threat in the middle of the night, and some of the other stuff that was said within the threat, none of it was credible,” Koch said. 

Officers checked the school grounds overnight. 

“We conducted driving around the middle school and didn’t find anything suspicious,” he said.  

The campus had been closed in observance of Presidents Day Monday and students were never at risk. School operations continued as normal Tuesday morning. Koch said the department determined the threat to be a hoax based on the timing, the phrasing of the call and the absence of any corroborating information. 

The chief noted that similar false threats have been circulating nationwide. 

“There’s information passing throughout the state that these bomb threats were coming around, especially for schools… anything within the call that we could find credible, none of it made any sense,” he said. 

While police see a rise in these types of calls, Koch cautioned against assuming all threats are fake. 

“We do our best to analyze and figure out which ones are and aren’t, and then make the best call for the safety of the community,” he said. 

Tracking down the caller may take time. 

“It’s very hard to track down these actors, especially when they’re outside the area routing the traffic through different IPs… but not impossible,” Koch said. “It just takes some time.” 

No arrests have been made and the investigation remains open, Koch said.