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News & Current Events May 4, 2026 at 12:05 PM

Hoax calls prompt evacuations and closures at several US zoos

Posted by No_Idea_Guy

Hoax calls prompt evacuations and closures at several US zoos
AP News
Hoax calls prompt evacuations and closures at several US zoos
Hoax calls involving alleged bomb threats and even claims of active shooters have prompted evacuations and closures at several zoos around the U.S. in recent days.
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selimnagisokrov May 4, 2026 +238
For the Louisville one it was like the 3rd bomb threat that work in the area. Sad part is it happened on a Friday when kids were either off from school for Derby or the schools had arranged field trips to the zoo because they had to be in session. A lot of kids missed out due to this  I know where I am 60-ish miles from Louisville, the other week someone called a bomb threat on a Walmart.  It's getting ridiculous and will eventually be a boy who cried wolf situation.
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SleepLessTeacher May 4, 2026 +45
Hold on. Districts/schools close for the Derby?
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selimnagisokrov May 4, 2026 +47
Yes, it's a big deal. The problem is we had the entirety of Feb schools were closed due to weather so a lot of schools had to give up their Derby day off.
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josh_the_rockstar May 4, 2026 +15
There is a small school district near me (Delaware City Schools in Delaware, Ohio) that shuts down for a week for some horse thing called the Little Brown Jug.
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CrackinBacks May 4, 2026 +10
My place of work also closes early for Derby every year. It’s a whole thing here
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SleepLessTeacher May 4, 2026 +2
Interesting. Is it considered a state holiday then?
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CrackinBacks May 4, 2026 +5
Unofficially. Most businesses don’t close but you’ll find some, especially smaller places
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rebelliousbug 6 days ago +2
A few miles out from the derby everything is shut down and there’s officers on every corner. Almost all businesses shut down that are within a certain radius of the track if they aren’t food /booze. People also often say, “Happy Derby!” It’s kind of impossible to move through the heart of the city during derby because everything shifts to derby. Even residents are prevented from getting to their house (that’s absurd). Just a Louisville thing tho
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sariisa 6 days ago +8
you absolutely cannot travel anyfuckingwhere remotely near Churchill Downs or downtown or near any attractions for basically the entirety of Derby weekend because of the unbelievable wall of traffic. keep in mind, like, all kinds of billionaire horse owners and rich gamblers and Saudi oil princes are flying in for this thing; the Queen of England used to come to it. It is just unfathomably fucked to get anyplace. our colleges even rush to finish their spring semesters earlier than most, to give out-of-state students a chance in hell at making it out of the city before everything grinds to gridlock. (pretty nice being done with finals by April 25th)
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fullmetaljackass 6 days ago +9
> you absolutely cannot travel anyfuckingwhere remotely near Churchill Downs or downtown or near any attractions for basically the entirety of Derby weekend because of the unbelievable wall of traffic. Yeah, I used to live across from the Downs. One year I had to work on Derby day. Going home, last half mile took almost three hours.
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Shedfloorgarbage 6 days ago +7
School was closed back in the day in Da UP for opening day deer season. I was more into fishing and didnt know why that tradition wasn't used there as well.
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TheGringoDingo May 4, 2026 +23
I’d be curious what percentage of bomb threats are more than just a threat of a hypothetical bomb. Not to say we should take them less seriously, but there has to be a breaking point where enough people stop caring.
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Miguel-odon May 4, 2026 +23
Most bomb threats are hoaxes.
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TheGringoDingo May 4, 2026 +11
Right, but is that majority 5:1, 10:1, 100:1, 1,000:1, etc.?
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strikervulsine May 4, 2026 +17
99.9999% If you're building a bomb to set off, you don't tell people you've planted a bomb.
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Wiseduck5 May 4, 2026 +11
Yeah, you do. It’s extremely common to alert people. Weather Underground never killed anyone in their bombings. Even the IRA usually called them in.
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Daewen 6 days ago +2
~~They didn't mean to but accidentally killed two people.~~
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Wiseduck5 6 days ago +4
Yeah, themselves. I don’t think that counts as one of their attacks.
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Daewen 6 days ago +2
Apparently I'm misremembering something, because I remember reading a book in high school about a group that bombed a college building not realizing that a professor and someone else had stayed late. I think they were targeting an army recruitment office in the building? I thought it was the Weather Underground, but apparently not. Edit: I found it. It wasn't them. It was four men not connected with a group. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling\_Hall\_bombing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hall_bombing)
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TheGringoDingo May 4, 2026 +3
Yep, so they just get used as a disruption that everyone else has to be annoyed by
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Miguel-odon May 4, 2026 +5
That's actually not how it turns out most of the time. You are thinking as if the goal is to actually harm people, but the goal is usually to inflict terror or get attention. In the real world, bombs are rarely disguised, and often made very obvious to draw attention. Warnings are called in most of the time.
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Tgijustin May 4, 2026 +5
This sounds made up. Boston Marathon comes to mind.
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Miguel-odon May 4, 2026 +3
Islamist militants are an exception. Look up IRA, the Weathermen, activist groups from the '70s through the '90s.
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Th3_Admiral_ May 4, 2026 +3
"Most of the time"? Do you have any examples of where someone actually called in a legit threat? The only one I can think of is that bizarre RV bomb in Nashville from several years ago. That had a loudspeaker on it that announced it was a bomb before it exploded. And according to the FBI investigation, they believe he was intentionally trying to scare people away so no one was harmed. 
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light_white_seamew May 4, 2026 +4
The IRA used to call in legit bomb threats. I think it was because they didn't necessarily want to kill civilians, or at least wanted to claim they weren't targeting civilians even if they didn't actually provide enough time for a thorough evacuation.
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troyunrau May 4, 2026 +3
This one is a "classic" -- where the bomb was actually a ransom device. Imagine modern ransomware, but in actual hardware form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombing
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EducationalProduct May 4, 2026 +1
> In the real world, bombs are rarely disguised, and often made very obvious to draw attention. Warnings are called in most of the time. source? because thats a very matter-of-fact statement that feels like you are pulling it out of your ass. Every famous bombing i can think off came without warning.
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Miguel-odon May 4, 2026
I first learned about it from a presentation by one of the most active police department bomb squads in the United States.
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password-is-taco1 May 4, 2026 -2
This makes no sense, it’s the killing of people that generates the terror
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Miguel-odon May 4, 2026 +1
It's the uncertainty that causes terror. Grief turns to anger, turns people harder against you. If you are trying to sway public opinion, you give warnings. If you want WAR, you don't give warning.
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icantbelieveit1637 6 days ago +1
This is very not true the Zoo would go bankrupt before people considered to ignore a bomb threat. All it takes is one are you really risking your and your families lives to go to the f****** zoo?
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RainaElf 6 days ago +1
that's wild I'm in Lexington and haven't seen any of this.
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_Schrodingers_Gat_ May 4, 2026 +2
And then Trump blows up a Walmart, blames Canada, and suspends elections.
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Rubychan228 May 4, 2026 +426
According to family in the area, this also happened at the Toledo Zoo during the same time frame.
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caffekona May 4, 2026 +138
Louisville zoo also on the same day Toledo zoo had the threat. I think there was a third but can't remember
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notshore May 4, 2026 +43
akron ohio too
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Opposite-Program8490 May 4, 2026 +35
Phoenix Zoo too
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caffekona May 4, 2026 +3
That's the one!
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EllieZPage May 4, 2026 +31
There were at least 6 the last time I checked. 4 of them in Ohio. I hope they catch these idiots. 
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angiosperms- May 4, 2026 +9
Idk if these are the same but back when these were happening in schools non-stop the calls were coming from overseas. Idk why
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erroneousbosh 6 days ago +12
Because it's piss easy to set up a VoIP number from some overseas provider and ring it in from elsewhere.
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EllieZPage May 4, 2026 +6
Oh interesting. I guess my thought was that they were Ohio based because of how many calls were in Ohio. But wow, it would make it so much more difficult if that's the case. 
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angiosperms- 6 days ago +8
Yeah with the schools they would target a bunch of schools in one area too https://www.npr.org/2022/10/07/1127242702/false-calls-about-active-shooters-at-schools-are-up-why They are probably using AI now to make the calls
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Stunning_Bed23 May 4, 2026 +12
Cleveland too.
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thecompanion188 May 4, 2026 +5
Not during the same time frame but the Miami Zoo dealt with a series of bomb threats earlier in the year.
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HalcyonTraveler May 4, 2026 +104
What the f*** is wrong with these people?
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[deleted] May 4, 2026 +37
[removed]
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TexasDad1024 May 4, 2026 +40
I think he asked what's wrong with them, not how they did it.
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mendenlol May 4, 2026 +70
Aquariums as well. The Aquarium of the Smokies was evacuated
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Elegant_Leading_474 May 4, 2026 +15
I know what it is, but I imagined little cocktail sausages in a fishbowl and was briefly disappointed it *wasn't* that.
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ZenRage May 4, 2026 +57
Doing this to families taking their little kids to the zoo adds an extra level of being a d*** to the crime of calling in a fake bomb threat. For some of us, that is a day we took off work to spend a day making good memories for our kids and we don't get a whole lot of those... F*** you for ruining that.
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Shagroon 6 days ago +12
The people who do this have no bearing on that dynamic. They are either extremists or terroristic animal rights activists… not the type of people that want to have kids.
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JesustheSpaceCowboy 6 days ago +10
They did it to my small town bumfuck nowhere Walmart. If I was a guessing man, I’d say it’s a test to see the response times for a real attack *or* a way to cancel the midterms.
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DroidC4PO May 4, 2026 +36
Has anyone checked the penguins?
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Bondorian May 4, 2026 +32
No Rico, no kaboom now
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Honeycove91 May 4, 2026 +10
Jackson Lamb: "Now tell me one person who has a grudge against penguins" River: "...Batman?"
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MaxSchreckArt616 May 4, 2026 +24
Stop f****** with the animals and the zoos you pieces of shit. 
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SomolianDaycare May 4, 2026 +81
I doubt it's PETA since they are attention seeking, and this was done anonymously.
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Tibreaven May 4, 2026 +91
PETA would announce it everywhere Although I'd also like to think PETA as an organization is just smart enough to realize that swatting every major zoo in Ohio, where swatting is a felony, would both be unpopular and unlikely to help their leadership stay in the public sector.
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MisterPistacchio May 4, 2026 +20
Yeah I wouldn't expect anyone else other than PETA and i agree they know it's a big deal so they're silent. The Denver zoo was also part of this (saying a plane will fly into it) and what some people might not know this zoo like some others is a conservation alliance involved in hundreds of conservation projects across six continents. There is good that comes from zoos but PETA is probably also only looking at them with blind folds
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Dt2_0 May 4, 2026 +19
Yea, the more involved you get in conservation, the more you realize that the vast, vast majority of conservationists are very big fans of zoos. Good zoos, and we are talking about major AZA zoos in America, so basically all of them, are irreplaceable when it comes to the benefits in outreach and funding they bring to conservation efforts.
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mendenlol May 4, 2026 +19
i've always been a big proponent of animal rights and advocacy so, when the time to do our big research paper came around in high school, I did mine on PETA. how devastatingly eye opening that one was
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SubstantialPressure3 May 4, 2026 +22
This happened last year, a lot of swatting calls/bomb threats to high schools and colleges. I think they traced several of them overseas.
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Specialist-Bee-9406 May 4, 2026 +47
*Places tinfoil on head* Smells like testing the response time. 
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Osiris32 6 days ago +4
Not that tinfoil, the abortion clinic bomber did just that. And would have successfully blown up the police command vehicle had not a rookie cop rushing to the scene parked his patrol car in the wrong spot.
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Warcraft_Fan May 4, 2026 +5
Those pranksters are idiots. Many of the 3-letters agencies will find out who called and the said pranksters would be on the hook for cost of emergency service in addition to jail and fine. With this many zoos hit, odds are the offenders are in US
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Low-Zucchini6929 May 4, 2026 +18
they're testing response times and distraction capabilities
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SuccessfulBorder2261 6 days ago +3
Our kids hs/ms school was just evacuated for a bomb threat. It’s 2 hours after pickup and we had to go to a different location to pick them up, it’s chaotic.
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Quirky-Prune-2408 May 4, 2026 +4
There was a bomb threat at my local high school on Friday. Michigan. I wonder if they are connected.
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KawaiiBotanist79 May 4, 2026 +4
Schools and Walmarts across Kansas and Nebraska too
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09232 May 4, 2026 +4
With it being Zoos wouldn't surprise me if this was someone's form of 'activism'
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SapphireLungfish May 4, 2026 +4
As a zoo fan, we can’t seem to catch a break
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Daren_I May 4, 2026 +7
> In the latest case, police on Sunday swept the Akron Zoo in northeast Ohio after a threat led to the evacuation of visitors. Authorities gave the all-clear, but zoo managers opted to close for the rest of the day. Don't large companies and event centers have special instructions setup with their local 911 dispatch? In Dallas, a lot of large companies have code phrases setup with the dispatcher to validate the call. If someone doesn't have the code (i.e., a customer calling), dispatch immediately reaches out to the listed company contact to validate the call. I believe it stemmed from bogus emergency calls years back.
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_head_ May 4, 2026 +19
A bomb threat wouldn't come from the company, so how would that help? 
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donkeyrocket May 4, 2026 +10
This is someone calling in a threat to either the zoo or directly to police. It doesn't sound like the hoax call was coming from the zoo but someone threatening the zoos. And unsure how widespread what you're talking about is. I worked at a science museum and trained with in house security and there was no such protocol. Any 911 call from within the building alerted security so they were clued in and could coordinate with emergency responders.
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WhoEvenIsPoggers 6 days ago +1
I love the part where they say this is “a part of life the everywhere in the world.” or something along those lines. As if this isn’t an issue exclusively in the United States.
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channell36 6 days ago +1
I was in Columbus when that one happened
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kwhite0829 6 days ago +1
Columbus Zoo for the second time in a week today
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Shadowthron8 5 days ago +1
I tried calling in but the lion was busy
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tylercuddletail 6 days ago +1
Targeting zoos? Animal rights terrorists? They want to kill people at zoos and liberate the animals who cannot survive in the wild right?
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MrMichaelJames 6 days ago
I hope they refunded everyone that was evacuated.
0
sassafrassian 6 days ago
What a wild first thought. Most (if not all) zoos are.
0
Random_Words_1827 May 4, 2026 -14
Police are doing it themselves to get overtime.
-14
Chersprolapsedanus May 4, 2026 +5
Mcnulty, get back to work.
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[deleted] May 4, 2026 -14
[deleted]
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Miguel-odon May 4, 2026 +20
Actual bombings are less common, but often warnings are given for actual bombs.
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DiscoInfernus May 4, 2026 +12
Could you imagine the legal liability if they ignored it and shit went down?
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