An officer with the Pennsylvania State Police Hazardous Device & Explosives Section walks into a building along North Christian Street during an evacuation order, Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. A scheduled “Drag Queen Story Hour” at a library that had drawn opposition was canceled after a suspicious package was found in the building and two blocks were evacuated after threats were reported, authorities said.
Connor Hollinger - member image share, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Connor Hollinger - member image share, ASSOCIATED PRESS
An officer with the Pennsylvania State Police Hazardous Device & Explosives Section walks into a building along North Christian Street during an evacuation order, Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. A scheduled “Drag Queen Story Hour” at a library that had drawn opposition was canceled after a suspicious package was found in the building and two blocks were evacuated after threats were reported, authorities said.
Emailed bomb threats that resulted in the evacuation of parts of downtown Lancaster on Saturday likely originated outside the United States, according to investigators.
The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office and city police said they are getting support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the continuing investigation.
The threats were received a few hours after a Drag Queen Story Hour at Lancaster Public Library was canceled over concerns about a suspicious package.
In an update Thursday, the DA’s office said law enforcement got emergency authorization from a Lancaster County judge “to ascertain further information about the account that sent the email.”
Based on that, investigators “believe the contents of the threat originated from outside the United States.”
Investigators declined to answer further questions and said they would release more information when it was available.
Following a series of emailed bomb threats in Davis, California, last September, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel told The Davis Enterprise, “there are several ways people can hide the origin of where the emails are sent.”
Among the ways would be to use a virtual private network to mask the internet protocol address, the unique number that identifies a host device on the internet.
The Lancaster bomb threat was sent by email shortly after noon Saturday and specifically cited the library event as its motivation.
The threat came two hours and fifteen minutes after the organizer of the event, Lancaster Pride, canceled it. That decision was made after two bomb-detecting K-9s reacted to a package inside the library.
The email with the bomb threat claimed responsibility for placing bombs in the library, suggesting that whoever sent the email may have sought to capitalize on news of the suspicious package.
At the time the email was sent, no details about whether the package indeed contained a bomb or other hazardous material had been released. Police did not announce until around 3:20 p.m. that the package’s contents were found to be safe. It turned out to contain coloring books from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the library was expecting.
Police said the K-9s may have reacted to chemicals that the package came into contact with sometime before it was delivered to the library.
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