Poorly-Transmitted Fax Page Leads To Major Evacuation

The branch manager of a Bank of America called police about 10 a.m. after receiving a fax containing images of a lit match and a bomb with a fuse, bank spokesman Ernesto Anguilla said.

But text explaining the fax was actually from an internal bank promotion that failed to transmit properly.

The missing text included the phrases “The countdown begins” and “Small business commitment week June 4-8,” according to a copy circulated by police.

“The fax machine malfunctioned, so a partial image came through that looked somewhat suspicious,” Anguilla said.

Fears also arose because the branch received a suspicious package delivered by a customer around the same time, police said. A State Police bomb squad searched the bank branch and checked out the package, which was a delivery of documents.

About 15 small businesses in a shopping plaza were evacuated for about three hours, including a daycare center with about 30 children, Police Chief Scott Rohmer said.

The fax was sent to the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank’s branches in parts of New England, New York and New Jersey. It did not result in any other bomb scares at other branches, Anguilla said.

JOKESTARTERS:

• Hey Bank of America, here’s a free tip with no additional service charge: GET A NEW FAX MACHINE!
• In a related development, a poorly-transmitted, yet real bomb threat was mistaken as a promotion for a different Bank of America branch, which subsequently blew up as tellers were doing a scavenger hunt to find a customer named “Bob Threat.”

SOURCE:

• Centre Daily