The Naperville Police Department is currently investigating several recent threats to local schools over the past two weeks involving plans to shoot up or plant explosive devices around the campuses, according to NPD Commander and Public Information Officer, Rick Krakow.
“These threats cause significant disruptions to our learning environments, divert substantial resources to investigate, and erode parents’, students’, and staff members’ confidence in their schools being safe environments,” said Krakow.
Multiple threats over the phone
The latest incident happened around 7:38 p.m. Thursday evening, with a call threatening violence at Naperville Central High School at 8 a.m. the next morning, causing the school’s administration to shift to an e-learning day as a precaution.
Prior to that, a number of threatening voicemails were left at multiple Naperville School District 203 schools on March 31 during spring break, while the week before, a threat to Naperville North High School prompted a soft lockdown on March 26.
While Commander Krakow says there’s not necessarily a link between them, there is a similarity in the way the calls are coming in.
“It’s almost like an electronic voice over a message to the school or in [Thursday] night’s case, to our communicator. They actually called in and spoke to a member of our emergency communication center,” said Krakow. “Our telecommunicator attempted to gather additional information from the caller but was met with resistance and hostility before the call was disconnected.”
Ongoing investigation
NPD personnel started investigating and immediately notified the Naperville Central High School principal of the threat. The school’s administration decided to transition to e-learning for Friday, April 10, out of “an abundance of caution.”
He says the calls sound almost robotic-like and are distorted, coming from an anonymous number, making it difficult to track. But Krakow noted the department will continue doing everything it can to find who is behind these threats.
“We’re working with the FBI and reporting all of our cases to them, to try to bring the people that are doing these criminal activities and hold them accountable,” said Krakow, adding that these threats are more severe than simply a prank call.
“Anybody who thinks that this is a prank. It’s not a prank, it’s something that is being taken seriously and there are severe consequences for your actions,” said Krakow.
The Naperville Police Department says it will prosecute anyone responsible to the fullest extent the law allows, including seeking felony charges.
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