Man finds lost phone in Walmart bathroom, then makes bomb threat with it, Florida cops say
A man whose phone had gone missing learned he left it in a Walmart bathroom when it was used to call in a fake bomb threat, Florida deputies said.
Dispatchers received a call around 3 p.m. on Jan. 12 from someone claiming there was a bomb inside a Port Charlotte Walmart Neighborhood Market, according to a Jan. 16 news release from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.
After making the threat, the caller hung up, deputies said.
The dispatcher immediately called the number back, and the person answered the phone and said “tic toc, tic toc” before hanging up again, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies searched the area and found the owner of the phone, the sheriff’s office said, who said he hadn’t realized his phone was missing.
When he got a notification on his smartwatch that a call was coming from 911, he used his watch to ping his phone and found it in the Walmart bathroom, the sheriff’s office said.
He had left it behind, according to deputies, and someone else had found it before using it to call in the bomb threat.
The area was searched and the threat was deemed not credible, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies then used surveillance footage to identify a 28-year-old man who was in the bathroom at the time the call was made, the sheriff’s office said.
When questioned, the man told deputies he had made the call after seeing others make fake bomb threats on TikTok, according to the release.
The man was taken into custody and charged with felony false report of a bomb or weapon of mass destruction, the sheriff’s office said.
Port Charlotte is about 100 miles south of Tampa.
This story was originally published January 16, 2024 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Man finds lost phone in Walmart bathroom, then makes bomb threat with it, Florida cops say."
