FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been charged with making threatening phone calls to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa two days after a suspicious package was found outside a gate, though investigators haven’t accused the caller of planting any devices.
The 35-year-old Palm Harbor man was charged with making the threat in a phone call to the base on March 18, a criminal complaint filed in Tampa federal court said. He was arrested Monday.
According to the complaint, the man called the base twice the morning of March 18 and made threatening statements to the people who answered, apparently referring to the suspicious package that had been found on March 16. Officials locked down the base and ordered everyone to shelter in place for several hours.
The criminal complaint said authorities traced the caller’s phone number, obtained cell site data and corroborated the man’s location in the days leading up to the March 18 call.
The criminal complaint noted that the man has a history of making similar threats. He was interviewed and then taken to a mental health facility under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows a person to be held involuntarily for three days.
The FBI said Friday that the suspicious package contained “possible energetic materials.” Further analysis of the package is ongoing.
The U.S. Central Command is located at MacDill and is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South Asia. MacDill is one of the U.S. bases that has been on heightened alert since the war in Iran began.
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