PRICE, Utah, Jan. 30, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A Carbon County woman was indicted Friday on after law enforcement officials say she called dispatch in Price months earlier, and falsely reported that a bomb threat had been called in to her place of employment, a Dollar Tree store.
In connection with the Nov. 12, 2020 incident, Wellington resident Amy Katherine Ludlow, 41, now is charged on suspicion of:
- Making a false alarm, a second-degree felony
- Emergency reporting abuse with a weapon with a weapon of mass destruction, a second-degree felony
- Making a false written statement, a class B misdemeanor
- Providing false information to a law enforcement officer, a class B misdemeanor
“Defendant was working at Dollar Tree when she called Price dispatch and reported that a male, who she believed to be Hispanic, had just called Dollar Tree’s landline and said he placed a bomb in the store about 20 minutes prior,” the probable cause statement says. “She stated that she did not see a Hispanic male enter the store 20 minutes before.”
The Price City Police Department was notified, and contacted the Carbon County Emergency Response Management Director, Price City Fire Department, and Carbon County Ambulance to have them stage in an adjacent parking lot, the statement says.
Other law enforcement agencies agencies responding included the Wellington Police Department, Helper Police Department, Utah State University Police Department, and Carbon County Sheriff’s Department.
The Dollar Tree and nearby businesses, including Lin’s Fresh Market, Origin Fusion Grill and Taco Time, were evacuated. The building was “checked for identifying weapons, but none were found,” the statement says.
The Utah County Bomb Squad Canine Detection Unit was called down and arrived approximately two hours later. The building was cleared and no devices or explosives were located, it says.
“In speaking with Officer Price, the defendant told him that the individual who called said he placed a bomb in the store because they had not hired him,” the probable cause statement says. “Defendant stated the store had just hired five new employees, but three were female and the other two were Caucasian males; two others were not hired by Dollar Tree but they were not Hispanic.”
The woman said she had texted her boss asking what she should do about the “threat,” and the boss told her to contact law enforcement. In examining text and call records on Ludlow’s cell phone, officials found she had waited 11 minutes between the text to her boss and the call to dispatch, the statement says.
A subpoena served to the phone service used by the store revealed that no incoming calls had been received at the Dollar Tree during the time Ludlow claimed to have received the threatening call.
“The results of that subpoena showed that only two calls were placed to Dollar Tree and the last was placed two hours prior to when defendant said the threat was made,” the probable cause statement says. “Through further investigation, law enforcement learned that the caller was another store employee who called regarding some items she needed to purchase.”
When questioned by police again, Ludlow “disclosed she was under the belief that Dollar Tree was going to be robbed by another employee’s friends, so that is why she called in the bomb threat,” the statement says, adding, “she claimed she did not tell law enforcement about this while on scene because she was scared.”
