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Highlands Today

Authorities Still Investigate Bomb Scare

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By Joe  Seelig | Highlands Today

Published: December 27, 2007

SEBRING — Sheriff's investigators were still investigating Wednesday a possible link between a bad check arrest at Circuit City and a bomb threat Monday afternoon at the Sebring store.

Highlands County sheriff's deputies arrested Shermon Bernetta Ward, 30, of Orlando, after they say she passed a bad check for $1,473.27, drawn on a SunTrust Bank account.

Ward was being held Wednesday on a $4,000 bail in Highlands County and is on hold on out of county warrants in Osceola and Lake counties.

Sheriff's Lt. Jess Purvis said Monday that Ward bought a TV, a computer and Playstation games, as a clerk recognized a check that she was using as the same type of check that a man tried to pass earlier in the day.

That man left the store with that check and is wanted for questioning.

Ward was approached by deputies while she stood outside the Circuit City store next to a U-Haul truck, according to Sheriff's Lt. Tim Lethbridge on Wednesday.

She told a deputy she was waiting for an item she had bought to be brought out of the store, he said.

As the drama unfolded, deputies recovered three video games valued at $77 in the U-Haul box truck.

A lap top computer valued at $549.96 was taken outside of the store by Ward, but was not recovered, Lethbridge said. He believed a television, valued at $729.99, never left the store. It is unclear what happened to a PS-2 memory card worth $19.99.

The person who received the bomb threat call at the store believed it was a man's voice on the line, according to the sheriff's office.

"We believe the bomb threat was in relation to that arrest," Lethbridge said, adding that they were looking at another suspect. "We are not releasing his name as the case is still under investigation."

Investigators continued to look for the man who rented the truck for questioning on some possible warrants and as a "person of interest" in connection with the bomb threat.

Deputies believe the pair arrived at the store in the rented U-haul truck, according to a deputy on the scene.

The Circuit City store was cleared visually at 3:40 p.m. Monday and customers were allowed to return inside.

Ward was charged with counterfeiting of a bank bill, check or note, using or possessing an identification of another person without consent, grand theft $300 or more but less than $5,000 and issuing a false bank bill, note, check or draft.

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