WKU confirms campus bomb threat is part of nationwide hoax
December 13, 2018
At least one person on WKU’s campus received an emailed bomb threat, WKU media relations director Bob Skipper said in an email to all faculty, staff and students Thursday.
“The Western Kentucky University Police Department and Information Technology are aware of an email threat received by at least one person on campus and have determined there is no safety concern,” Skipper’s email stated. “Similar threats have been reported across the United States, and the FBI has also advised that the email is not a credible threat.”
Skipper also confirmed to the Herald that this email threat was the same as one that the New York Police Department Tweeted about Friday afternoon, which involved extorting Bitcoin in exchange for not setting off a bomb. Schools, universities and other locations across the country have also received the threat.
{{tncms-inline account=”NYPD NEWS” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Please be advised – there is an email being circulated containing a bomb threat asking for bitcoin payment. While this email has been sent to numerous locations, searches have been conducted and NO DEVICES have been found. <a href="https://t.co/7omOs13Z7Q">pic.twitter.com/7omOs13Z7Q</a></p>&mdash; NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1073304984656232450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1073304984656232450″ type=”twitter”}}
{{tncms-inline account=”NYPD NEWS” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">At this time, it appears that these threats are meant to cause disruption and/or obtain money. We’ll respond to each call regarding these emails to conduct a search but we wanted to share this information so the credibility of these threats can be assessed as likely NOT CREDIBLE.</p>&mdash; NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1073304988447854599?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1073304988447854599″ type=”twitter”}}
WBKO News in Bowling Green also reported that the station had received the same threat.
Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky’s police departments confirmed they had not received any reports of a bomb threat as of Thursday afternoon.
Skipper encouraged recipients of the threat on campus to forward them to [email protected] for further investigation.
Sports Editor Jeremy Chisenhall can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @JSChisenhall.
