Full Notification

Earlier this afternoon, Simi Valley Police personnel responded to the Simi Valley Town Center Mall due to multiple 9-1-1 calls reporting a subject walking around wearing a black "bomb vest" with wires hanging from it. The subject was also carrying a briefcase which the subject would set down from time to time and then run off as though the briefcase was going to explode. As you can well imagine, this behavior generated numerous calls to the police station, alarmed numerous patrons at the mall, and caused at least one of the businesses at the mall to close to the public and trigger an emergency alarm in order to grab the attention of law enforcement.

Needless to say our attention was grabbed and thanks to a swift response from the SVPD the juvenile prankster and friends were nabbed. After quickly determining the "bomb vest" was a fake, the 17 year old Simi Valley juvenile resident was placed under arrest for 148.1(c) PC- False Bomb Threat and 422 PC- Criminal Threats. The juvenile was subsequently lodged at the Ventura County Juvenile Hall. The remaining juvenile was retrieved by his/her parents.

The Simi Valley Police would like to thank the numerous people who "saw something and said something." Your vigilance and quick reporting allowed the SVPD to arrive quickly and end the problem before things spun further out of control.

The Simi Valley Police Department wants to remind our community that in a post-9/11 world, ANY bomb threat will be taken extremely seriously. These types of "pranks" are NOT funny and extremely dangerous and today's "stunt" could have easily blown up in their face.