Local Walmart Receives Hoax Gun Threat

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Around 150 Walmart customers and employees in Grand Forks were evacuated after a gun threat.

KVRR’s Brittany Ford was in Grand Forks and spoke with one former employee about the protocol for hostage situations

Grand Forks Police got the call just before 9pm Sunday evening of a hostage situation.

The suspect reportedly called Walmart demanding money, and that he was holding two people hostage in the store.

“At one point during the initial call the suspect abruptly stated something to the effect that it’s a joke, and hung up the phone. Unfortunately we can’t just take that as truth the suspect had already made many threats,” said Lt. Bill Macki of the Grand Forks Police Department.

After a 3 hour search and reviewing surveillance footage, regional SWAT teams and Grand Forks Police confirmed the call was a hoax.

We spoke with one former Walmart employee who says the procedures for situations like last night are unclear.

Leslie Tibbetts and her husband both previously worked at Walmart.

She explained to us that robbery procedures were a part of the pre-employee training but not hostage situations.

“I’m sure there’s management and personnel that knows what to do but as an average employee you didn’t know what to do in that type of situation,” said Leslie Tibbetts former Walmart Employee.

She says that she had some small but scary experiences while she was working there but nothing quite like this.

“2012 was the last time I was in Walmart working and just scary to think about that it could have been my store,” said Leslie Tibbetts former Walmart Employee.

Grand Forks Police are working with Walmart to retrieve the phone records to try to track where the call was made.

Reporting in Grand Forks Brittany Ford KVRR News.

Grand Forks Police are encouraging anyone who has any information on the caller to contact the police.