Ohio man charged in bomb threat at oil and gas service company
An Ohio man was arrested Tuesday on accusations he phoned a bomb threat last year into a company in North Strabane Township that services the Marcellus shale natural gas industry.
Township police charged Ryan Patrick Dougherty, 39, of Belmont, after determining his cellphone was used to place the call about 11:25 p.m. Nov. 16 to Myers Well Service in Eighty Four, court records show.
The threat prompted evacuations of Myers, at 40 Industry Drive, and several other nearby businesses, including the SpringHouse Market, where bakers were working the midnight shift, police stated in the affidavit.
The night supervisor at Myers answered the call, in which a man told him that half of his employees were on drugs, the court record show.
The caller didn’t like the answer he received, and he then said, “Since you don’t care, the bomb has already been planted, and at 9 a.m., the place will go up in smoke,” police stated in the affidavit.
Police contacted the Air National Guard’s 171st Air Refueling Wing in Allegheny County to help establish a perimeter for the evacuations after learning there was a 20,000-gallon fuel tank at Myers.
Police also consulted with the FBI, Allegheny County Bomb Squad and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives
The bomb search was completed about 4 a.m., and no suspicious packages or devices were found at Myers.
Dougherty denied making the threat, but admitted to calling the business after finding out that his fiancée was being sexually harassed by a Myers employee, court records allege.
He consented to a Jan. 15 polygraph test performed by state police, and it showed “inconsistencies in his statements” about the phone call, police said.
Police charged Dougherty with the placement of a bomb threat, making terroristic threats resulting in building evacuations and criminal mischief.
He is free on $25,000 unsecured bond set by District Judge Traci L. McDonald-Kemp, online court records show.