{"id":3131,"date":"2026-05-03T23:44:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T23:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3131"},"modified":"2026-05-03T23:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T23:44:41","slug":"zoos-swatted-in-central-states-part-of-life-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3131","title":{"rendered":"Zoos swatted in central states: \u2018Part of life now\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(NewsNation) \u2014 At least four zoos or aquariums in the\u00a0central United States\u00a0were targets this weekend of apparent \u201cswatting\u201d calls that prompted the locations to temporarily close as a safety precaution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Friday morning, the\u00a0Louisville Zoo\u00a0was evacuated for a \u201csafety threat\u201d that police said was someone calling in a claim there was a bomb on the premises. Police swept the zoo, however, and quickly gave the \u201call clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Around the same time, police in Ohio reported calls of a bomb threat and gunshots at the\u00a0Toledo Zoo. Sgt. Mohamad Nasser said tactical units, a bomb squad and K9 officers responded and found no danger to the public.<\/p>\n<div class=\"max-md:faux-bleed mb-4 bg-accent\/2 pb-5 md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Waves of fake threats to colleges are putting students on edge and testing dispatchers<\/p>\n<div class=\"mb-4\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Toledo Zoo closed for the day, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Saturday, bomb threats were called on two more facilities that house animals:\u00a0Ripley\u2019s Aquarium of the Smokies\u00a0in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe swept the zoo. We found no traces of any bombs of any kind,\u201d said President and CEO for Columbus Zoo and Aquarium,\u00a0Tom Schmid, who added employees have done recent drills to prepare for such emergency calls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis\u00a0is\u00a0part of\u00a0life now around the country, around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd\u00a0so\u00a0we have to make sure we\u2019re vigilant.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"max-md:faux-bleed mb-4 bg-accent\/2 pb-5 md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><i>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(NewsNation) \u2014 At least four zoos or aquariums in the\u00a0central United States\u00a0were targets this weekend of apparent \u201cswatting\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3133,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions\/3133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}