Black Friday Bomb Threats Anniversary

Sunday marked the first anniversary of the Marquette Black Friday bomb threats.

They made the busiest shopping day of 2011 busy for the wrong reasons.

Customers and store employees had to evacuate their stores for about an hour and a half.

The Marquette City Police were pleased that this year didn’t bring a repeat performance.

Det. Capt. Gordon Warchock says threats have to be handled the same whether they’re legitimate or not, so they’re draining on local law enforcement resources even when the threats are bogus like last year’s were.

The Holiday Inn, Econo Foods and Shopko in the city of Marquette received threats, as did Walmart, Target, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s in Marquette Township.

Mining Journal publisher Jim Reevs was furious that an occasion important to the livelihoods of so many people could be disrupted so blatantly.

A year ago today, the day after the threats, he announced the creation of a reward fund for any information leading to arrests.

He says the newspaper wanted to help send the message that the perpetrators’ behavior will not be tolerated.

The fund balance began at $500 and increased quickly.

Reevs says many people jumped at the chance to donate to the fund, bringing it to more than $3,600 within several weeks.

But the reward was never collected because the people responsible have not been caught.

The case has been closed for months, but that doesn’t mean it always will be.

Det. Capt. Warchock says if new information should surface, the case can easily be re-opened.

There’s no word from the Marquette Police on why the investigation was closed without any arrests made.