FBI Investigating at Least 19 Bomb Threat Hoaxes at Oregon Airports, Schools, and Synagogues

The FBI have confirmed that at least 18 bomb threat hoaxes have been sent out around Oregon, with more than a dozen being sent out to rural school districts.

Hundreds of children from the Arlington, Cascade, Central Lynn, Colton, and Corbett school districts all had to be evacuated so that law enforcement could come in and conduct their investigation. They were deemed to be hoaxes, and now these children are back in their classrooms, though now backed by the worry that they may not be completely safe anymore.

The FBI is still investigating the source of these bomb threats, all of which were sent through email, because while they were deemed to be hoaxes, they can’t be discounted as anything less than continuous threat.

There is also confirmation that school districts were not the only targets of these hoax threats. The other six emails were sent out to three houses of worship, two regional airports, and an airline.

What the FBI Have So Far

As of now, they aren’t sure if the bomb threats are coming from a single person or an actual entity. If anything substantial has been found, it has not been released to the public, but some connections have been made. The language used in each bomb threat, the time span in which they were sent, as well as the fashion in which they were communicated signals that at a good chunk of them are sent by the same person or entity.

Just recently, some information had been found in the form of a 19th bomb threat that had not immediately been discovered.

The Crook County School District revealed on Wednesday that it received a bomb threat email as well, found on Tuesday morning. The reason it hadn’t been found sooner was because it was immediately put into the spam folder. According to the district, it had been put there due to the domain: nerdmail.co. Along with that was the username “iwillgougeyoureyesout0”. We can only be thankful that the bomb threats were all hoaxes, for had they not been, this simple misfiling could have led to disastrous consequences.

In a statement, the district wrote, “Students and staff were never in danger, and law enforcement confirmed it was not a credible threat. We know that even a hoax threat like this can cause concern for families, so the district supports families who want to keep their children home.”

Despite these threats being found as not credible, Special Agent Kieran Ramsey, who is in charge of the FBI’s Oregon office, says that these hoaxes can’t be discarded and forgotten. 

“You just can’t discount hoaxes like this and say it’s not worth it,” Ramsey said in a statement. “Especially when we see schools evacuated and the impact it has to students, teachers, and staff and certainly parents around the state.”

Ramsey expressed his frustrations with the cases, as these hoaxes are fairly notorious in the circle for wasting time, draining public resources, and putting stress on the children, teachers, parents, and all others affected simply trying to live their lives.