Local Walmart Mistakenly Receives Bomb Threat

BY MELANIE BUCK –

Mena Walmart Supercenter 67 underwent a full search on New Year’s Day after a bomb threat was received through their corporate office. According to Mena Police Department Investigator John Logan, Mena PD received a call from Walmart’s corporate security office at approximately 11 p.m. on January 1, 2016 who said there had been a bomb threat to Walmart 67, which is Mena’s local Walmart.

Logan said, “Officers from the Mena Police Department immediately responded. With the assistance of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, and the Arkansas State Police, the store was evacuated and searched.” No explosive devices were found during the search and upon further investigation, it was learned the threat had actually been made to Walmart 667, which is located in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

Local Walmart Manager Scott Brown said, “It was absolutely nothing. There was nothing legitimate about it.” Brown explained that he got a phone call from one of the local assistant managers that said corporate had called them and said there had been a bomb threat made. Brown said he began going through protocol and received a report from the main office listing known details of the event. “I saw the number that the threat came from and knew it wasn’t a local number so I began a reverse search. When it came up as a number from Tullahoma, Tennessee, I thought, ‘why do I know that town,’” recalled Brown. He realized that it’s because both Mena and Tullahoma Walmart store numbers are very similar. Mena is store 67 and Tullahoma store 667. “I knew then that it had to be a mistake so I called them back and said ‘it may be another store.’” Brown explained that when the initial call was taken, the person keying in the information mistakenly keyed in the wrong store number.

Upon noticing the mistake, a search was also conducted at Walmart 667 in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Fortunately, there were no explosives found there either.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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