Police Investigate Bomb Threat at Central Maine Walmart

If you had been wondering why the Walmart in Skowhegan was evacuated on Saturday night, we have the answer.  There were concerns about a bomb threat.

According to an article on the WGME website, a bomb threat was found in the men's room at the store at about 9 PM on Saturday.  The threat reportedly said that the bomb would go off at 10 PM.

Out of an abundance of caution, the store was evacuated and a bomb-sniffing dog was brought into the store.

Nothing was found and the store reopened at about 10:30 PM.

Police continue to investigate who left the note.

The history of the sniffer dog

According to 3D K9 Detection, law enforcement agencies in the United States currently employ over 100,000 K-9s.  These pups do everything from sniff out drugs, to locate missing people, to sniff out explosives.

You may find it hard to believe that the first use of dogs by cops was in the 1888 search for serial killer Jack the Ripper.

In 1899, police forces in Belgium began training their first police dogs.  Germany was another early adopter.  Soon, there were police dogs across Europe.

The first police dogs in the United States were in New York.  In the early 1900s, the police commissioner sent an officer to Belgium to see what the the hype was all about.  The officer reportedly returned to the U. S. with five Belgian shepherds.

While it took awhile for the concept of canine police officers to gain traction, they have been a valuable part of many police forces since the 1970s.