A bomb threat Monday at the Lenoir County Courthouse meant 19 minutes in the heat for visitors and county employees, but otherwise didn’t amount to much.
“We did have a bomb threat at approximately 3:10 this afternoon,” Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Ryan Dawson said. “The phone call originated in the clerk’s office in the building. No suspicious packages or items were found in the search of the building. All the occupants and workers inside the building were evacuated.”
Lenoir County Manager Mike Jarman summed up the feeling of many people who were waiting by the sidewalks outside the courthouse, saying no one knew much about what was happening.
“They just said ‘bomb threat’ and asked us to leave,” Jarman said.
At 3:29 p.m., deputies signaled to people waiting outside that it was safe to re-enter the building.
Dawson said an investigator has been assigned to the case, and that person’s first order of business is to track down the origin of the call.
He said between different phone companies and obtaining records, that first step could take between two days to two weeks to accomplish.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.