An hours-long lockdown at Arcadia High School turned out to be a hoax – the latest in a string of false alarms at Southern California schools and hospitals. Gadi Schwartz reports from Arcadia for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2013.
The FBI and police continued on Friday their search for a prank caller who has threatened to shoot students and police, triggering several lockdowns of schools, hospitals and a mall in the San Gabriel Valley.
The latest threat came on Thursday at 3 p.m. when an anonymous caller said he had a gun on the Arcadia High School campus. SWAT teams searched the campus and a lockdown was ordered for hours before officials deemed the campus safe.
The lockdown was lifted around 5:30 p.m. and parents were allowed to pick up students, police said.
Police said they believe Thursday's call is related to other similar calls to nearby areas this week, according to an Arcadia Police Department statement.
On Monday, a call to the Covina Police Department about 1 p.m. from an anonymous male who said that he was at the Citrus Medical Center and had an AK- 47 "and was going to start shooting people" was determined to be a hoax.
A similar telephone call shut down a middle school in Monrovia about the same time.
On Tuesday, Northview Intermediate School and Duarte High School, which are on the same campus, were placed on lockdown, according to deputies at the sheriff's Temple Station.
In one of the calls, the person threatened to shoot police.
More Southern California Stories:
