OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA: A 21-year-old Florida man was arrested after making false bomb threats when family members attempted to evict him from their Fort Walton Beach home. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office noted that Lance Heines was arrested on Thursday, August 3, when deputies were called to a home off Tyner Street.
Authorities noted that just before 12 pm, they received a report of a disturbance between the residents and Heines, who was in the process of being evicted. Heines’ family members were trying to get him out of the garage when he “made statements indicating he had an explosive device and told family members to get the bomb squad,” the officials said. Deputies eventually made contact with Heines over the phone, where he finally agreed to open the garage after about 30 minutes. Heines was then safely taken into custody.
Cops evacuate neighborhood
As a precaution, deputies evacuated the neighborhood and restricted traffic around the home until the OCSO K9s came and determined there were no explosive devices or materials at the property. Heines has since been charged with making a false bomb threat and aggravated assault, according to WRKG.
Similar incident
Heines’ arrest came just a few days after another Florida man was taken into custody for making a false bomb threat at a Florida airport. Wegal Rosen, a 74-year-old resident of Toronto and Deerfield Beach, Florida, was arrested on July 8 after he got into a “heated verbal dispute” with an Air Canada agent at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Following the argument, Rosen allegedly “attempted to walk away from the ticket counter located in Terminal 2 without his carry-on luggage”. When employees asked him to take his luggage, he responded by telling them that there is a bomb in it. He fled, making his way to Terminal 3 without the luggage. In response to the threat, two terminals were evacuated, and admission to the airport was suspended while officials dealt with the situation. Instead of a bomb, detectives discovered a CPAP machine to treat Rosen's sleep apnea inside his carry-on luggage. Rosen was arrested at the scene and was charged later with one count of false reports concerning planting a bomb, explosive or weapon of mass destruction. His bogus bomb threat resulted in eight planes being canceled and another 50 being delayed, according to the NY Post.
