Macomb County school districts pranked with threat of terrorism
(CBS DETROIT) - A fake bomb threat could lead to some very real jail time after schools in Macomb County were put on high alert.
"These threats are very serious, and if you make these threats, we will find you," said Chesterfield Township Police Chief Brian Bassett.
Bassett is talking about recent emailed threats to several school districts in Macomb County over the weekend. The threats were sent to school officials in Clinton Township, Chesterfield Township, New Haven, Armada and Anchor Bay.
"Our primary focus was to ensure this was not a credible bomb threat," Bassett said.
Thankfully, the threats were not credible.
"Our investigation revealed within the first 12 hours, we were comfortable that this was not credible," Bassett said.
As you can imagine, investigators raced to figure it all out when the threats were made.
Bassett said the threats appear to be a case of doxing. The fake bomb threat was sent using a fake email in the name of a former student of the district. The reason was to get revenge. It is believed that a soured online relationship prompted the doxing.
"The individual that the email came from that was a fake email account. It did not actually come from that individual. We've found that individual and made contact with him, and interviewed him, and I'm comfortable saying that we do not believe that he is the originator of those emails," Bassett said.
The reason for the fake threat of terrorism is even more bizarre.
"The original threat came in as a terrorist group that was upset about the activities in Russia and Ukraine. That was the nature of it, and again, the U.S. involvement, and as a result of that, they were going to do these attacks on the schools," Bassett explained.
A threat of terrorism is a 20-year felony. Moving forward, police said they are focused on finding out who sent the emails.
"This is something we take extremely seriously; this is something that is not fair to our families to our community, and when we do identify who these threats are from, we will prosecute them," Bassett said.
