Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward evacuated its Los Angeles, California studio this morning after receiving a bomb threat, according to a report from Kotaku. Fortunately all employees were evacuated without issue.
As NBC News reports, bomb threats have been called in all over the US today, December 13, with schools, businesses, and hospitals among those affected. The New York Police Department and Massachusetts State Police reported multiple bomb threats on Twitter this morning, and they're far from the only ones. Similar threats have also cropped up in Florida, Colorado, Ohio, Texas, Delaware, and California, to name a few.
Several state police departments described the threats as electronic (specifically email), and affirmed that there's currently no evidence of any actual bombs. Per NBC News, one Illinois police department said a local business received an email demanding a $20,000 ransom to be paid in Bitcoin. (At the time of writing, that equates to just over six Bitcoins.) Washington police described a similar email in a statement:
"Each of the threats were received via email requesting bitcoin ransom and to our knowledge, no one has complied with the transaction demands," the Metropolitan Police said. "We are investigating these threats with our federal law enforcement partners. This is a nationwide issue being reported in other cities and is not considered credible at this time."
It's unclear whether the threat which apparently caused Infinity Ward's evacuation is connected to the bomb threats being reported around the country, but the timing is obviously suspicious.
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