Target Stores in Five States Receive Bomb Threats After Removing Some Pride Month Items

Target stores in at least five states were evacuated over the weekend after receiving bomb threats, apparently over their removal of some Pride Month items last month.

The Washington Post reported Monday that local news outlets in Louisiana, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Oklahoma received emails from anonymous people about bomb threats at the locations.

One email sent to Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR listed seven locations in and around the Oklahoma City area and claimed that two of them already had bombs in them, hidden inside the store products. The email read that “the bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs. Time is ticking,” and ended with the date “4/19/1995,” which is the date of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Oklahoma City Police Department spokesperson Gary Knight said that numerous news outlets told them about the threats. Authorities evacuated the stores but did not find any suspicious items.

Shawn Burke, the police chief of South Burlington, Vermont, said that news outlets in Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York all received the same email bomb threat over the weekend. The threat accused Target of betraying the LGBTQ+ community and named the locations of four stores in the three states, including South Burlington.

“I think it had quite an impact locally. It makes people a little bit uneasy to think about what’s going on. We’re more and more seeing this type of behavior in terms of swatting at schools locally and in terms of stores like Target,” Burke said.

Target also received bomb threats in stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah from people claiming to be unhappy with the Pride Month merchandise’s removal.