$250,000 bond set for man accused of making bomb threats
4/28/2014PORT CLINTON — Bond was set for $250,000 today for a man arrested in a string of bomb threats that started April 1 in Port Clinton and included the evacuation of Waite High School last week.
Charles L. Tingler, 22, of Oak Harbor, Ohio, was arraigned in Ottawa County Municipal Court on one charge of inducing panic, according to the county sheriff's office. He was ordered held in the Ottawa County jail in lieu of the bond pending his next court appearance May 5, without an option to post 10 percent of the bond and be released.
The series of fake calls to schools and police departments occurred in Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie, and Lucas counties. In each call, police said, the suspect either said a device was about to go off in the school building or that a man wearing a trench coat was walking in the school with a bomb.
He told authorities that the calls started after he spotted a student on social media expressing a desire to get out of class, police said.
The last two incidents were Friday morning just hours before investigators took Mr. Tingler in for questioning.
In Toledo on Friday, a 911 dispatcher received two calls warning that the East Toledo high school was going to be blown up, at 6:15 a.m. and at 6:31 a.m. Police and school officials moved students and staff members into Mollenkopf Stadium while they swept the field house, and once that was cleared they moved all of the students to that facility to await the school’s search. When police found nothing suspicious, students were back in class by 9:30 a.m.
The charge of inducing panic in this case is a second-degree felony because the bomb threats occurred at schools.