By DAVE McMILLION
Staff Writer
Valley Mall on Halfway Boulevard was closed for 21/2 hours early Monday night after a caller to NBC-25 said there was a bomb in the building, officials said.
Investigators accompanied by a bomb-sniffing dog searched every store in the mall following the 3:45 p.m. phone call but found nothing, said Tim Nolan, senior general manager of Valley Mall.
A male voice called NBC-25 and said a bomb was going to detonate between 7 p.m. Monday and noon today, Noland said.
The mall is expected to reopen today at 10 a.m.
Noland said several hundred mall employees and customers were evacuated from the mall at 6:30 p.m. while four officers from the state fire marshal's office and the Washington County Sheriff's Department searched the building.
Shoppers continued to trickle into the mall parking lot Monday night, only to be turned away by security officers outside.
Matt Summers, who works in Littman Jewelers, said an investigator came in his store and searched under counters, chairs and other areas.
"I didn't ask too many questions. I just let him do his thing," Summers said.
Jason Lindsay, who works at Babbage's computer software store, said most employees in the mall considered it a prank. "But you can't be too safe," Lindsay said.
