Bomb threat by text disrupts Port Townsend ferry service

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, August 28, 2013

PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend-Coupeville ferry service was shut down for three and a half hours Tuesday night by a bomb threat sent as a text message.

Nothing was found, and ferry service was back to normal with the 8:30 p.m. Port Townsend run to Coupeville and the 9:15 p.m. Coupeville sailing to Port Townsend.

Port Townsend police, State Patrol troopers with bomb-sniffing dogs and other law-enforcement officers searched the Port Townsend terminal, both ferries, the parking lot and waiting vehicles and the dock area.

The threat came via a text message that arrived about 5 p.m. indicating some kind of explosive on a ferry or at the Port Townsend terminal, the State Patrol said.

There were no details about who got the text, or who had sent it.

The two Port Townsend-Coupeville ferries, Salish and Kennewick, were held at the Port Townsend docks.

Four sailings were canceled — the 5:15 p.m and 6:45 p.m.sailings from Port Townsend for Coupeville and the 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Coupeville departures for Port Townsend.

In addition to the State Patrol and Port Townsend police, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies were at the ferry terminal, and a Coast Guard patrol boat checked the dock area.