Bomb Threats at County Building Again

Bomb threats cleared the San Diego County administration building two more times on Friday, the fifth and sixth bomb threats this week at the building.

The threats have cost the city tens of thousands of dollars in lost time as police repeatedly evacuated the workers from the building, officials said Friday.

Two threats were called in Friday, one at 7:58 a.m. claiming that a bomb would go off at 9 a.m. and another in the afternoon after about 1,500 employees had reentered the building following a four-hour wait outdoors, according to Richard W. Jacobsen, deputy chief administrator of San Diego County.

Jacobsen said no bombs were turned up by a team of explosives specialists from the Sheriff’s Department, the San Diego Fire Marshal’s office and a private security company, which conducted three thorough sweeps of the building using sniffing dogs.

Jacobsen said the man who has placed the bomb threats speaks English with a heavy accent and describes himself as Iranian. The caller makes comments concerning U.S.-Iran relations and the Persian Gulf, Jacobsen said.