Bogus bomb threat prompts downtown Petaluma search

A call to Petaluma police by a man claiming to have put eight pipe bombs inside a downtown business led to a lengthy search by officers with the aid of two bomb dogs and was determined to be a hoax, according to police.

The caller said he’d picked the business at 140 Keller St. - TWiT.tv studios - on purpose but said he was upset with his own life, not the business, according to Petaluma Sgt. Ron Klein. “They’re all going to die,” the man reportedly told a dispatcher Monday.

TWiT.tv produces more than 30 hours of weekly content, offering mostly tech-related topics that can be viewed in live streams and podcasts.

A company spokesman Tuesday said they did not want to comment on the incident.

The 4:35 p.m. call wasn’t made to 911 but came in to the Petaluma police dispatch center on an inside emergency line, which is harder to trace than a 911 call, Petaluma Lt. Danny Fish said.

About eight to 10 people working inside the business were given the option to leave, pending the finding of something suspicious. All but a manager left the building.

Workers and employers at other nearby businesses alerted to the potential threat chose to close up for the day, Fish said.

Several officers responded to the call. Two U.S. Coast Guard dogs trained to sniff out explosives were brought up from San Francisco.

The building was determined to be clear by 8 p.m.

“It’s a slow search. It takes a lot of time, takes a lot of officers,” Fish said. “It was clearly a false threat. Now the focus is, is there any way to figure out who made this threat?”

Police said the call couldn’t be traced back to the caller and there currently were no leads as to who made the threats or why that business was targeted.

Klein asked anyone with information to contact Detective Nick McGowan at 707-778-4372.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com or Twitter@rossmannreport.