Gotcha: Volunteer Firefighter Sentenced for Making Hoax Bomb Threat

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Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: It’s an FBI case that shows why fake threats can result in real consequences.

Using a friend’s phone and a text application, a volunteer firefighter in South Carolina …

Matt Desmond: … devised a scheme where he sent out anonymous text messages to people he didn’t know with a story that there had been a bomb placed at the Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Columbia.

Halpern: That was case agent Matt Desmond, who says at least three people received the texts and notified the FBI or local police.

After three hours of searching, no bomb was found.

Desmond began working with tech companies to investigate who sent the texts.

Desmond: We served subpoenas on them for information regarding that account.

Halpern: The investigation revealed volunteer firefighter Karry Max Taylor was responsible for the hoax bomb threat.

Taylor confessed he had hoped his station would be called for a real emergency while main crews were busy responding to his threat.

In April 2017, he was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

I’m Mollie Halpern of the FBI with Gotcha, featuring the Bureau’s closed cases.