Inmate calls in bomb threat

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A Santa Maria man who delivered a bomb threat to the American Lung Association’s Santa Barbara office on Tuesday turned out to be an inmate already in custody who called collect from County Jail, authorities said.

An employee at the nonprofit organization answered the phone at approximately 2:10 p.m., police said, and immediately heard a recording indicating the call originated from the jail.
“When the recording reached the prompt for the caller to be identified, the employee was told that there was a bomb in the building; the caller was the only one that knew where it was; and that the caller was serious,” Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte of the Santa Barbara Police Department said in a news release.
The employee immediately called police, who subsequently contacted jail personnel to track down the caller. The investigation led authorities to inmate Frank Santos Flores, 43.
Officers arrested Flores for falsely reporting a bomb threat. A search of the office building, located at 1510 San Andres St., revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Jayne Brechwald, associate director at the local American Lung Association office, said it’s unclear why Flores would call in a threat.
“We have no idea,” she said. “The woman who got the call was new here, so of course she was a little frightened.”