By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
A Montague County entity was drawn into the bomb threat scheme that spread across the nation Thursday, but a search of the office yielded no explosive device and everyone was safe at the Montague County Tax Appraisal District Office in Montague.
Sheriff Marshall Thomas said Chief Appraiser Kim Haralson called his office about 1 p.m. on Thursday reporting an email containing the bomb threat. In the email the writer demanded payment of $20,000 in bitcoin or a bomb would be detonated. See a copy of the email adjacent to the story on page 1A.
Haralson said one of the employees saw the email and immediately asked her boss to come over and see it. They took a screenshot of it and all four of the employees left the building after calling the SO on the landline. Two of the workers were at lunch.
Thomas, Chief Deputy Jack Lawson and Deputy Chase Pelton and K9 Ace arrived quickly on the scene and began a search of the building located at 7459 State Highway 175 at the edge of Montague.
The staff huddled underneath the outside carport as rain fell. Thomas said the search took about 35 minutes and they cleared the scene, allowing the ladies to return to work.