Two Arnold restaurants were evacuated for about two hours after a 13-year-old Imperial boy allegedly mentioned a bomb while talking on the phone to an employee at one of the businesses on Richardson Road. The case was forwarded to juvenile authorities, Arnold Police Det. Lt. Jeremy Christopher said.
The Pizza Hut restaurant, 1926 Richardson Road, and the Taco Bell restaurant, 1932 Richardson Road, were evacuated between about 5:15 p.m. and 7 p.m. Oct. 23. The evacuations came after the boy allegedly mentioned a bomb while talking on the phone with a Pizza Hut employee, the report said.
The boy did not say a bomb was in either building and did not tell the employee that a bomb would explode at either location. However, because a bomb was mentioned, the businesses were evacuated, and two bomb-detecting dogs from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency searched the businesses. No bombs were found, according to the report.
Investigators traced the number used to call Pizza Hut to a home in Imperial and determined the boy may have placed the call. The boy’s parents drove him to the Arnold Police Station to discuss the matter with investigators before he was released and the case was handed over to juvenile authorities, Christopher said.