False bomb threat results in large police presence at Miami Co. Municipal Court

TROY — Law enforcement from multiple agencies responded to the area surrounding the Miami County Municipal Court on West Main Street in Troy Sunday afternoon.

Chief Deputy Officer Steve Lord with Miami County Sheriff’s Office said that just before 5:30 p.m. dispatchers started receiving calls about bombs being planted under a car near the courthouse.

According to Lord, crews from Troy Police Department and Tipp City were also called to the scene.

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Lord said out of precaution the Dayton Police Bomb Squad was called to assist and search the area but no threat was found.

After tracing the phone number authorities believe that the incident called into dispatch could have been a “swatting”.

Swattings are when someone accesses a public camera and calls in what looks to be real-time information and gives a false report that there is a threat, according to Lord.

“It’s a tremendous waste of resources,” Lord said.

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Once the camera was taken down that authorities believe the caller was using, they stopped calling in threats to the dispatch center Lord said.

Lord said whoever made the calls could face several charges such as inducing panic and filing a false police report.

The incident remains under investigation.

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