Bomb threat against Shoshone County Sheriff's Office 'misguided phone call'

WALLACE — An individual with a Montana phone number called in a bomb threat against the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office around 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Capt. Seth Green said bomb threats of this nature are different in each case, but because the jail is attached to the building, a lot of extra steps are added in the event an evacuation is required.

“A guy called into Montana law enforcement to specifically say he planted a bomb outside or in our building. A great majority of these aren’t true, but we have to investigate if it’s true because, what if? Instantly it goes into a lot of moving parts all at once,” Green said.

Montana law enforcement told the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office the caller was believed to be male and sounded intoxicated. 

The sheriff’s office had to put in an emergency location request on the number the bomb threat originated from to search for the caller before a warrant was obtained due to the possibility of danger for those at the sheriff’s office, the county jail and the surrounding area if the bomb was real.

In a social media release Wednesday evening, the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office said “these types of calls unfortunately take up a lot of county resources in a wasteful manner. We are thankful that it was just a hoax.”

Though he called the threat an unfortunate incident, Green said the team was able to mobilize quickly after some unexpected practice due to a gas leak Tuesday.

“The very night before we had to clear out three blocks of Wallace and that almost kind of prepped us for this,” Green said.

Spokane Bomb Squad was on call and ready to respond if the bomb had been determined to be legitimate.

“If anything were to happen we’d have (expedited) the inmates really fast. At that point, we had cleared the exterior of the building and the interior of the building and I was setting up evac plans as well just in case,” Green said.

The last known residence of the individual law enforcement believed to be connected to the phone number was an address in Smelterville.

Because of the potential danger, deputies were cautioned to not respond as though it was a normal interview, but the owner of the phone was established to not have lived at the Smelterville address in about seven years.

“The ping came back on his phone that he was actually in Montana by Billings,” Green said.

Green said it was a misguided phone call and that his understanding was the hoax stemmed from a mental health crisis.

“Everyone was moving really quickly and we solved it at record pace,” Green said.

The Billings Police Department confirmed Friday morning they have apprehended the individual, but no charges have been filed at this time. 

Story has been updated with information from the Billings Police Department.