LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.—The Orange County Sheriff’s Department responded to a bomb threat at Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California, for the second time in a week.
Deputies responded to the hospital at around 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 1 after an unidentified person called police, claiming there was a bomb at the location.
After establishing a perimeter in conjunction with the Orange County Fire Authority and searching the building, the department determined the threat to be a hoax.
A very similar situation occurred Dec. 26 when an individual called the department and claimed to be at the location with a bomb, though that was determined to be a “swatting call,” a type of call where an individual purposely misinforms a police department of a fake emergency in order to generate a large police response at a particular location.
Despite similarities between the calls, investigators are still working to determine if it was the same person who made the two calls, as well as to find out who the person is so he or she can be held accountable.
No one was evacuated from the hospital during either incident, and the department was on scene for around 3 hours.
“Investigators will work to identify who called in the threat so they can be held accountable,” the department wrote on Twitter.
