City auto dealers face bomb threat
3 Penticton dealerships among dozens in B.C. targeted by extortionist in apparent hoax
Upwards of 70 auto dealerships in B.C. received a bomb threat by email Thursday, according to the operator of one such business in Penticton that was temporarily closed as a result.
Hundreds of other businesses around Canada and the United States were also targeted in what now appears to have been a hoax.
Long before that was determined, however, Penticton Honda, Penticton Hyundai and Skaha Ford were evacuated around 10 a.m. in response to the email, which didn’t appear to target one particular brand of automaker.
“It’s all makes, it’s all models and it’s all throughout B.C.,” Skaha Ford dealer principal Brad Junjoe said in a phone interview while a police dog searched the premises for a bomb.
“We did a visual inspection of the entire building and didn’t see anything, but it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he added.
Junjoe said the email threatened that “if a certain amount of money wasn’t paid by a specific time or a certain amount of money wasn’t paid, they would ignite” the bomb.
The person responsible was seeking payment in untraceable Bitcoin, according to Junjoe.
Mounties gave the all-clear to return to the affected businesses around noon, long after the perpetrator’s deadline for payment had passed.
“At this point, it appears that the threat is extremely low,” Penticton RCMP spokesman James Grandy told reporters.
He was unsure about the number and location of dealerships threatened or if there is a connection between them.
“It’s extremely complicated, but unnerving and not a very good situation for all of us,” added Grandy.
“But we obviously have to take every one of these threats seriously.”
Kelowna RCMP spokesman Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey said two businesses in that city and one in Peachland received threats Thursday morning.
“We can also confirm that a series of similarly worded threats have been received via email by various businesses throughout the province,” O’Donaghey said in an email.
“Law enforcement across B.C. are currently working to determine the source and legitimacy of these threats, and are conducting a risk assessment. The nature of the threats or the businesses involved will not be disclosed, in order to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigations.”
Meanwhile, police forces in major cities across Canada and the U.S. said similar threats appeared to be a hoax.
One busy subway station in downtown Toronto was briefly evacuated due to a threat received in the area, but was up and running again within hours.
Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. flatly dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money.
Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.’’
The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and said the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin.
We did a visual inspection of the entire building and didn’t see anything, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Brad Junjoe ”