Vidalia Police looking for suspect who called in bomb threat at Family Dollar

VIDALIA, Ga. (WTOC) - A bomb threat at a Vidalia store over the weekend has police asking for your help.

Vidalia Police say they’re taking this bomb threat, not as a harmless prank, but as a felony that will bring some time behind bars for whoever made that phone call.

Someone called the Family Dollar on Highway 280 around 8:45 p.m. Saturday night. The caller told a store employee there was a bomb there.

Police came, along with search dogs and the GBI bomb crew. Meanwhile, they evacuated the store, the supermarket next door and the neighborhood behind the shopping center.

Vidalia’s police chief says this threat had people evacuated in the parking lot and afraid.

“You don’t know if it’s a threat or a hoax or whatever until you get the all-clear sign. So we take every bomb threat serious,” said Vidalia Police Chief James Jermon.

He says an old security monitor had crews initially concerned that it was a bomb, but proved to be unrelated. He says they’ll investigate this until they find the person who made the threat.

They’re asking for anyone who knows anything about this threat to contact police, and you can do that anonymously.

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