According to the Livingston County News, the Geneseo Wal-Mart was closed for approximately two hours on Monday Nov. 17 after someone called in a bomb threat to the store. The person who made the call was a 15-year-old male from Perry, New York, who claimed he made it as part of a prank with his friends while at school that morning.
According to Geneseo Village Police Chief Eric Osganian, the suspect said, “I am going to blow up the building.”
The call, which came in around 11:30 a.m., prompted a call to police and an evacuation of the store. Police called in a K-9 bomb detection dog from the New York State Police Department in Victor.
Officers from the Geneseo Village Police Department and the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office blocked Volunteer Road at the entrances to Wal-Mart’s parking lot in an effort to direct traffic away from the building.
Walmart Subway employee Anna Zatkiewicz was off that day, but heard stories of the events from numerous coworkers who were working.
“All of a sudden they told me that they were working and they saw people walking out and then management was like you need to get out of the building, there was a bomb threat,” she said, adding that people were relatively calm throughout the evacuation process.
The building was declared safe and reopened at approximately 2:20 p.m.
As reported by the Livingston County News, the suspect told his parents about the call he made to Wal-Mart after he saw posts about the incident on Facebook. His parents then called the police in Perry, who contacted the Geneseo Village Police Department.
“Officer Benjamin Swanson arrested a 15-year-old juvenile for Falsely Reporting an Incident in the First Degree D-Felony for calling the Geneseo Wal-Mart Store at 4235 Veteran Drive and stating that he was going to blow up the store,” Osganian said in an email.
Due to the suspect’s age his name cannot be released. He is being referred to the Livingston County Probation Department.