It was a single bomb threat. And then there was another. And another.
When the phones stopped ringing in the area of the Ohio Valley Plaza on March 24th, the caller had threatened eight different businesses in St. Clairsville and Richland Township areas. The first threat was phoned into Walmart in the Ohio Valley Plaza – “You have 10 minutes to evacuate” – and then Kroger, Sheetz, West Texas Roadhouse, Denny’s, Whiteside’s, Unified Bank, and Red Roof Inn followed.
According to the Sheriff’s report, “the caller demanded money and threatened to detonate explosives if demands were not met.”
Larry Harvey, an 18-year-old who was at a St. Clairsville hotel at the time the threatening calls were made, was arraigned earlier this week following a grand jury indictment on charges stemming from bomb threats, and Harvey entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan stated in a press release that such a plea regarding insanity indicates that a person did not appreciate the criminal nature of their offense. Flanagan confirmed that an appointed psychological professional will interview and evaluate Mr. Harvey.
“There was a call made to Walmart and to seven other locations in and around the plaza,” Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack reported. “And anyone who thinks it’s OK to do something like this so they can see what happens should know that we’re going to find out who you are. It was as easy as making some calls so the Big Brother stuff could come into play.
“They pinpointed right where he was at just like that,” he said. “So, people need to know that if they want to go ahead and do something that stupid, they’re getting caught. That’s all I’ll say because we have to stay ahead of the people who break the law.”
In the press release report about the incident, it states that Harvey admitted that he had made the calls “for fun” and monitored law enforcement response using a police scanner.
“I was really glad when I was told we got him because it was a very serious situation when it was first reported, but it got to be a nuisance because the calls continued to come in,” the Sheriff explained. “There were expenses for what we had to do with our response, and our deputies could have been doing something else to keep our residents safe.
“I made sure when the call first came in that we had the entire area covered because in those situations, you just never know,” he said. “We had to treat the situation as the threat it appeared to be in the beginning, but we figured out it was (a hoax) pretty quickly.”
Harvey was booked on five counts of Making Terroristic Threats Felony 1 and five counts of Inducing Panic Felony 3, and he remains lodged in the Belmont County Jail. Flanagan explained that Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph Vavra didn’t set a trial date at the arraignment and that a trial date will not be scheduled until all insanity issues are resolved.
Sheriff Zusack was pleased with his deputies, but disappointed with the situation.
“When we respond to those kinds of calls, we are very cautious, but if I was going to blow something up, I’m definitely not calling the place and telling them,” he said. “It’s just going to blow up. There ya go … surprise!
“Making calls like that to see what would happen is something a child would do,” he said. “So, yes, we had multiple agencies on scene, and we had to evacuate the stores included in the mess. It was a hectic scene for sure because you just never know. People take these situations very seriously because they see on TV what some people do, and I don’t appreciate someone causing fear with the citizens of Belmont County.
“Go ahead and do it, but it’s not something we take lightly here at the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office. You’ll find that out if you’re the person perpetrating it.”
