PARIS — Terrorizing phone calls in which individuals alluded to shooting Oxford County dispatchers have been referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, authorities said Monday.
James Miclon, director of the Oxford County Regional Communications Center, said the latest incident occurred around 1 a.m. Saturday when a man calling from an out-of-state number menaced dispatchers with a barrage of calls.
The man did not directly threaten to shoot dispatchers, but made repeated calls asking about their physical location and the building’s layout, Miclon said. It was clear from that that the caller was not familiar with the building, he said.
“Dispatchers felt uncomfortable enough about wording of the language that it might lead someone to believe he was going to shoot someone,” Miclon said.
The incident is the second time dispatchers have fielded threatening phone calls in recent weeks, Miclon said. In the other, a male calling from a number outside of New England made dispatchers feel uncomfortable, Miclon said. That incident is believed to be separate.
Miclon said the caller “had an accent” but declined to say from which state the call originated. Miclon said he was working with phone vendors to try to trace the call. FBI agents on Monday collected recordings from the building, Miclon said.
A spokesperson for the FBI said they were aware of the situation but declined to comment, according to their media policy.
On Saturday, deputies from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and Paris Police Department responded to the building. Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant said Monday that the incidents have caused authorities to pause and review security.
Dispatchers at the communications center in Paris link emergency personnel in law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services across the county’s 54 towns, townships and plantations. Miclon said it was the first time in recent memory that threats had been made against his staff.
“We get a lot of odd calls, but nothing that makes the hair stand up,” he said.
ccrosby@sunjournal.com
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