ASHTABULA —
A bomb threat received at the headquarters of a national cinema chain ultimately sent Ashtabula County Sheriff’s deputies to the Ashtabula Towne Square on Friday, said Sheriff William Johnson.
Deputies, aided by a bomb-sniffing dog from Geauga County, checked the Carmike Cinema located in the Ashtabula Township shopping mall in response to a precautionary call from theater management, Johnson said. No device was found, he said.
On Friday morning, a threat was received at Carmike’s corporate office in Columbus, Ga., that a bomb had been planted in a theater. As a precaution, Carmike requested security checks of its theaters across the country. No specific threat was phoned in to Ashtabula County deputies, Johnson said.
“We sent units (to the mall) and secured the area,” Johnson said.
It was not immediately known if the search interrupted any screenings or required evacuation of patrons at Ashtabula Towne Square, he said. The bomb threat comes just a few weeks after a gunman killed a dozen people in a Colorado movie theater. Last week, a man was arrested after he carried a loaded pistol, ammunition and knives into a Cleveland-area theater.
Carmike Cinema operates more than 200 theaters nationwide, making it one of the largest exhibitors in the United States, according to Internet sources.
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