Harassing phone calls turn into bomb threat

Police officers surrounded a Greencastle bank Tuesday afternoon after sexually-harassing phone calls turned into bomb threats.

Tuesday afternoon was shaping into a rather normal, mundane day at the Old National Bank location at 1027 Indianapolis Road, until a series of harassing calls -- predominantly sexual in nature -- began flooding the bank's incoming lines at approximately 4:30 p.m., according to police at the scene.

According to GPD Detective Randy Seipel, employees initially began fielding the calls, but later let them go directly to the bank's answering service.

A strong GPD presence was observed at the bank at around 5 p.m. At that point, the bank had been shut down and employees had been evacuated.

Officers were reluctant to comment on the pending situation at that time, but later, through Det. Seipel's statement, it was learned that a review of the bank's incoming messages revealed a number of the same types of sexually explicit messages, with a notable exception:

The last message came from an unidentified male caller who told bank staff, "There might be a bomb there, and it might go off in 15 minutes."

The threat of a possible explosive device within the facility prompted an evacuation and search for a potential bomb. The search ensued under normal procedures, and no suspicious items were located.

The facility was declared safe and secured by GPD at 5:25 p.m.

When questioned about the possibility of using voice recognition technology to facilitate identification of the caller, Seipel said the technology doesn't exist locally, at this time.