Repeat suspect admits bomb threat
A Glenford man with a history of calling in bomb threats to local businesses has admitted making a threat against a supermarket from a jailhouse phone, the Ulster County Jail District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Kristofer Surdis, 43, pleaded guilty Thursday in Ulster County Court to a felony count of falsely reporting an incident, the prosecutor’s office said.
Surdis was charged after the Hannaford grocery store at Kingston Plaza received a bomb threat by phone on May 6. The store was searched, and no explosives were found.
The investigation concluded Surdis made the threat while incarcerated at the Ulster County Jail on an unrelated charge, authorities have said.
District Attorney Holley Carnright said Surdis has a criminal history dating to 1989. In May 2015, an Ulster County sheriff’s detective said most of the bomb threats in the county over the previous 30 years had led investigators to Surdis.
The Freeman’s archives show Surdis was:
• Convicted in 1998 of calling in bomb threats to Delaware County businesses.
• Convicted in December 2008 of falsely reporting an incident.
• Charged in May 2015 with calling a bomb threat, from the jail, to the Kingston Plaza Hannaford.
• Additionally charged in May 2015 with sending a threatening letter to a Margaretville supermarket from the jail.
• Charged yet again in May 2015 with sending a threatening letter to the Wendy’s fast-foot restaurant in the town of Ulster.
Surdis is being held at the Ulster County Jail without bail. He is to be sentenced in the most recent case on Sept. 29.