The Worth County Courthouse was evacuated along with multiple buildings across the nation last Thursday afternoon after an email was transmitted to the Clerk of Courts Office stating that there was a bomb in the courthouse.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the bomb threat was expected to be a hoax by the wording of the email, but precautions had to be taken to ensure the safety of everybody in and around the building. So, the courthouse was evacuated for approximately two hours as staff congregated across the alley. Bomb dogs from the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany were called in to search the building in the meantime.
In addition to the bomb threat at the courthouse on Thursday, officers are investigating a number of similar threats across the state and the nation on Thursday and Friday of last week. In Southwest Georgia, these email threats were received in Albany and Dekalb County in addition to the courthouse in Sylvester.
Furthermore, threats were received across Atlanta last Thursday. A newspaper in North Carolina received a similar threat.
According to an article published by the New York Times last week, “The emails, which were received by hundreds of companies, hospitals, libraries, and other institutions, according to the New York Police Department, were written in odd syntax and went something like this: The sender claimed that an explosive device has been hidden “in the building where your company is conducted” and could be prevented with a $20,000 ransom payment, made using Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.”
While it remains to be seen if the culprit of last Thursday’s hoax will be brought to justice, one thing is for sure, the shut down of business all along the East Coast from South Georgia to New York will result to a tremendous amount of wasted revenue.