Police investigate bomb threat at Sandy Safeway

UPDATE: Store reopened

By Marcus Hathcock

The Sandy Post, Aug 23, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

marcus hathcock / sandy post

Sandy Police Sgt. Shawn Burns, left, watches as federal agents question a Safeway employee Thursday afternoon.

The Sandy Safeway has reopened for business after a bomb threat shut down the grocery store for three-and-a-half hours Thursday.

Investigators from the Sandy Police Department, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the store in the early afternoon hours and found no suspicious devices inside. Employees returned to their posts at around 1:15 p.m.

At approximately 9:49 a.m., a female employee at the customer service desk was working with an as-of-yet-unidentified man on the phone, negotiating a wire transfer from Portugal.

Somehow, the man didn’t get the results he was looking for, and he responded by saying he was going to blow up the store if anyone came out of the door into the parking lot, according to the still-developing police report.

A Safeway spokesman said that while he didn't believe there was any imminent threat, the store closed down to ensure that employees and customers were completely safe.

Federal agents showed up on the scene before the noon hour, and the Portland counter-terrorism task was dispatched to sweep the store for explosives, Sandy Police Chief Harold Skelton said.

Authorities have a name for the suspect – since he had given it to the store employee to initiate the wire transfer – and are working to apprehend him. The investigation is still ongoing.

The store, located at 37601 Highway 26, has dealt with threats before. Early in the decade, armed teen robbers took over the store and threatened employees.

For more information about this story, pick up the Aug. 29 edition of The Post.

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit