BUTTE — Butte-Silver Bow Law enforcement is looking for a person suspected of a bomb threat at Town Pump on 531 South Montana street.
Officers received a call from a third party that warned a bomb had been placed near the store late Tuesday, June 22, 2021.
Town Pump was evacuated just before 11 pm and the area cordoned off.
The Lewis and Clark county EOD unit determined the device was not dangerous and cleared the scene at 2 a.m.
"Officers were able to observe a bicycle that had some sort of containment attached to it and they were unsure if there were wires coming from it or not. . .so they did notify the administrator on call and then we did notify the bomb squad out of Helena," said George Skuletich, Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff.
Lewis and Clark County Undersheriff Brent Colbert said that the explosives unit helps when they are needed and that the device looked credible enough to be a bomb.
"They sent us some pictures and our technicians looked at those pictures and felt that they should go there and take a look at the situation which they did and my report back from them was it was a non-explosive apparatus of some sort," said Colbert.
According to the United States Bomb Data Center Explosives incident report, bomb threats decreased 25 percent in 2020. There were a total of 5,482 suspicious and unattended package incidents, a decrease of 28 percent since 2018.
According to Skuletich, Butte-Silver Bow police take these threats seriously.
"We’re looking at video from the store and video from other locations to see if we can determine who may have left- it was strapped to a bicycle so we’re trying to determine who may have dropped off the bike at the town pump store," said Skuletich.
Butte police are seeking the public’s helping in identifying the person. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police at (406) 497-1120.
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