Glencoe bank included in national bomb threat hoax

A local bank was among the financial institutions and businesses around the country receiving bomb threats deemed not credible last week.
Thursday, Dec. 13, staff at Security Bank on East 11th Street in downtown Glencoe called police at 12:17 p.m. after receiving a bomb threat via email. Police didn’t learn until later in the day other banks, businesses and schools around the country had received similar threats via email, said Jim Raiter, chief of the Glencoe Police Department.
The email’s sender was listed as “Yong Fairman.” The threat demanded he be paid $20,000 in Bitcoin, a digital form of currency, in exchange for the withdrawal of Fairman’s mercenary and the device not detonating. The email said it would be detonated if police were detected in the building or if people left the building at the end of the workday without the extortion money being paid.

Open for business
The decision to remain open and not pay was made based on the bank’s policy and police determining there was not a credible threat to the bank’s staff or customers.

(For the complete story, see the Dec. 19 print edition of The Chronicle.)