Threatening letter spurs NJ nursing home lock down

by | Jul 27, 2012

A northern New Jersey nursing home was briefly locked down after the facility received an anonymous threatening letter referencing last week’s deadly Colorado theater shootings.

New Milford Police Chief Frank Papapietro says officers went to the Woodcrest Health Care Center around 11:40 a.m. Wednesday after the letter was received. He said the letter, which was not addressed to a specific person, contained threats and references to the Colorado shootings and newspaper headlines that had been cut and pasted to the handwritten note.

Authorities placed the facility on lockdown for about two hours while it was searched for explosives or other materials, but nothing was found.

Papapietro says lockdowns are more common than evacuations at nursing homes, due to the difficulty of quickly moving residents.

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