Huber Heights police investigate possible Facebook threat

Huber Heights police are investigating a threat made on Facebook toward city zoning officers.

On July 16, a citizen commented on a Facebook post that if a zoning officer tried to come onto his property “it will be the last,” according to an incident report.

Huber Heights Police Chief Mark Lightner said the department still has people to interview and no charges have been filed.

Lightner said this is an unusual case.

“We don’t receive a whole lot of threats to city employees, other than cops,” Lightner said. “And I don’t recall investigating any threat made on Facebook.”

The Facebook conversation was later removed. Huber Heights police reported not being able to find the post or comments.

The original poster complained about receiving a warning letter for parking their car on their lawn so they could wash it, prompting the person accused of making Facebook threats to reply in agreement and criticize the code enforcement department.

The poster said Huber Heights Code Enforcement Administrator Don Millard “and his cronies” tried to file zoning charges against him for a trailer the poster keeps in his backyard. The trailer incident happened in 2017.

“This (expletive) literally tried to come onto my property to take pictures of said trailer. He was met by a veteran trained in small arms usages, attached to my hip, hand at the ready,” the poster said, according to the incident report.

Huber Heights police went to the commenter’s home and questioned him about the possible threats.

The poster said his comments were not a threat, but referring to the fact the zoning can’t come into his enclosed backyard without a warrant or court order. The commenter told the officer he did not mean to threaten anyone.

Lightner said all threats, even those made on the internet, are dealt with the same way.

“You can’t hide behind your keyboard,” Lightner said.