An Orange County Jewish community center has joined a growing list of JCCs across the country that have received bomb threats in recent days.
The Merage Jewish Community Center and Tarbut V’Torah school, both at 1 Federation Way, Irvine, were evacuated around 4:40 p.m. Monday after someone called threatening to bomb the property, according to police.
About 1,000 people were safely evacuated, with no injuries reported, states an Irvine Police Department advisory. Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb-sniffing dogs searched the facilities and nothing suspicious was found.
Based on published reports, the Irvine JCC was among several around the nation that were part of a second wave of recent telephoned bomb threats, including the one in West Hollywood. Authorities believe an organized effort may be afoot, and they revealed that at least some calls originated overseas.
However, Irvine police say they do not have enough evidence yet to tie the local call to the others around the country. Anyone with information that can help investigators fill in the holes is asked to call Irvine Police Detective Michael Moore at 949.724.7316.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.