CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Walmart in Alice was evacuated Wednesday for a third time in the last month-and-a-half after a hoax bomb threat was called into the Jim Wells Sheriff's Office, said Alice Police Chief Eden Garcia.
The call came in at about 1:30 p.m., and viewer Rebel Lindsey alerted us to the evacuation at about 2 p.m. via TELL3.
The store was immediately evacuated.
"It's not an isolated incident," he said. "It's happening nationwide."
Wednesday's call was made to the Jim Wells County Sheriff's Office. The previous two -- one Feb. 2 and one Dec. 2 -- were made to the Alice Police Department.
"(We want to) nip this in the bud," he said.
Both agencies are working with federal authorities, Garcia said, as well as Walmart officials, to determine who is making the calls, and where they are coming from.
Meanwhile, the disruption caused to the city while having to respond to the calls has been tremendous, Garcia said.
"Not just to the people of Alice but to the economy as well," he said.
Every time the store is closed, people are escorted out of the store. He said there's a chance that repeated instances like this could cause stores to shut down, resulting in a loss of jobs in the city.
He also said evacuating the the elderly who shop there during the day also can be dangerous.
"They can get hurt during the evacuation," he said.
Then, anywhere from 15-20-law enforcement units are called to the scene just in case the threat is real, as well as fire department trucks and ambulances, in order to help block traffic and keep people away from the building and out of potential harm's way.
"We have to make sure we're going above and beyond," he said.
With law enforcement operating under the assumption that a local resident isn't calling the threats in, Garcia said it's hard to know why Alice was targeted.
"That's the question we keep asking ourselves," he said. "Is it randomly? We don't know enough to make that determination. But we have voice recordings, and we've contacted the federal side of law enforcement."
