Rangeley police conducted between 10 and 15 interviews with school students.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

RANGELEY – A 16-year-old Rangeley boy confessed in June to writing a bomb threat that emptied Rangeley Lakes Regional School on May 16.

The threatening note, which read “This is a bomb,” was tucked beneath the keyboard of a school-owned Apple iBook laptop computer and found by a female student, who reported the note to a nearby teacher.

Students were evacuated, the town’s police, fire and ambulance departments and the state bomb squad were called in, but an X-ray of the computer quickly revealed the threat was a hoax.

Rangeley police conducted between 10 and 15 interviews with school students, which eventually led them to the teen responsible, said Rangeley Police Chief Phil Weymouth.

When questioned about the threat, the boy immediately took responsibility. “He was very cooperative,” Weymouth said. “It was a 30-second interview. Cooperation is what saved this kid’s future.”

The investigation was led by Rangeley officer Steve Townsend.

The note was written four weeks before it was found, when the boy wrote it as a joke during class because he was “bored,” Weymouth said. When the boy went to remove the note, he couldn’t remember which laptop he had placed it in and gave up searching after a few days, he told police.

The boy was ordered to undergo 80 hours of community service and pay $650 in restitution. He also was placed on a six-month period of “informal adjustment,” a sort of prohibition that stipulates that within those six months, if he fulfills the community service and restitution payment, stays in school and has no more criminal conduct, the charges will be filed away.

According to Weymouth, the youth already has begun his community service, helping out at the town’s recreation department and transfer station.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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