Inmate demanded $1 million or else bombs would go off in Florida county’s schools, cops say
.jpg "An out-of-state inmate forced a Florida county, Taylor, to close its nine schools Monday. The inmate demanded $1 million or bombs would be detonated in the schools. Authorities did not find any bombs in sweeps of the schools.")
An inmate’s letter threatening to bomb elementary schools led a North Florida county to evacuate all of its nine schools on Monday.
The out-of-state inmate sent a letter to the Taylor County courthouse demanding that $1 million dollars be sent to an out-of-county bank account or bombs would go off in the county’s local schools, the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office said. Police did not release the name or location of the inmate.
The letter was postmarked on Halloween and the sheriff’s office was alerted to the letter Monday. Florida Highway Patrol, Taylor County School Resource deputies and Perry police worked together to search and clear all nine schools once they were evacuated.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that the inmate is not tied to Taylor County, but was not able to confirm if other counties throughout the state received similar letters.
Schools in Taylor were reopened Tuesday.
The same day, the sheriff’s office learned that two similar letters were sent to counties in South Carolina and Alabama.
This story was originally published November 5, 2019 at 6:15 PM.
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