LIVERMORE FALLS — A state police dog trained to detect explosives searched Rite Aid on Main Street on Wednesday after a bomb threat was made, Livermore Falls Lt. Thomas Gould said. No bomb was found.
Local police and firefighters responded to the store after a “very non-specific bomb threat” was phoned in at about 11 a.m. to the business, he said.
Rite Aid management made the decision to evacuate the building and have customers and employees move off the property to the other side of the fence on Richardson Avenue, Gould said.
When officer Vern Stevens arrived on the site the evacuation process was started.
“We went around to all the neighbors and notified them of the situation and gave them the option to evacuate if they wished,” Gould said.
Gould and officer Steve Allen were called to help secure the perimeters of the building and to make sure no one went onto the property, he said.
Rite Aid requested an explosive-sniffing dog be called to search, he said. A state police trooper and dog arrived about 40 minutes later and did a sweep of the building.
The threat was so nonspecific, Gould said, police were concerned that someone may have called in the threat to get people out of the building so that narcotics and other prescription medication could be stolen.
Firefighters used a ladder truck to make sure no one was on the roof, he said.
Rite Aid management made the decision to reopen the store and they were back in by 1 p.m., Gould said.
“Rite Aid did the right thing by securing the building to protect their employees and customers,” Gould said.
The drugstore has been burglarized three times since 2004 with more than 12,000 pills stolen in those cases.
The most recent burglary was in March when more than 2,000 narcotic pills were stolen. In January 2009, more than 5,000 prescription pills were stolen and in August 2004 another 5,000-plus pills were taken.
In all three incidents police were on the scene within minutes and the thieves were nowhere in sight, police reported each time.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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