Bomb threats to businesses in Cedar Rapids, nationwide not credible, police say

Bomb threats sent to Cedar Rapids businesses are likely a hoax, Cedar Rapids police say, and they are similar to threats being circulated throughout the state and nation.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department received calls from at least four businesses that were sent emails from an unknown person threatening to set off an explosive device if the business did not pay a specified amount of money via Bitcoin, according to a statement on the department's Facebook page.

'The police department has found no credible evidence that these emails are authentic,” the statement said. 'It appears to be a robo-email that has been sent throughout the area hoping to scam businesses out of money.”

Similar emails were sent to people and businesses in surrounding counties, the department said. Other news outlets and law enforcement agencies reported similar threats to businesses throughout the state, including in Des Moines and Ames.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department advises businesses that receive the email to inspect their buildings for suspicious packages and contact police if anything is found. Email recipients can also contact the police department's records division at 319-286-5350 to have it added to case No. 2018-19676.

Similar email threats appeared to stretch from coast to coast, prompting investigations on college campuses in Washington state and Pennsylvania and spreading across cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Police in New York said the threats they received were 'sent electronically” to places across the city, and they linked these messages to the others reported across the country.

'We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York Police Department's counterterrorism bureau said in a message posted on Twitter. 'These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide (and) are NOT considered credible at this time.”

As word of the threatening messages spread Thursday, the FBI said in a statement that it was 'aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities around the country, and we remain in touch with our law enforcement partners to provide assistance. As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety.”

In the nation's capital, police said they received 11 emailed bomb threats between about 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. that law enforcement authorities attributed to the same situation echoing across the nation.

The San Francisco police said they responded to threats received at about 10 a.m. local time across the city, noting that there were 'similar threats” in 'several other cities across the United States.”

The Washington Post's Mark Berman contributed to this story.