At about 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon, the local Walmart received a call that four bombs had been placed in the store. Employees and customers were told to leave the store immediately.
The store was evacuated, and both 10th and Grant Street next to Walmart were blocked off. Employees stood outside in the cold wind and customers were to leave the parking lot.
Police and sheriff’s officers, including K-9 officers responded to the site and spent over an hour searching for bombs.
“Safety first,” said Sandra Johnson, co-manager of Walmart. The company protocol is that customers and employees be evacuated in the event of such threats.
In 2012, Johnson said that the company had eight stores in Missouri receive threats.
Great Bend Walmart was not the only store in Kansas to receive a threat. There are unconfirmed reports that Oklahoma City, and other stores in Kansas were also received bomb threats.
While police completed their search, employees were told that there would be a lot of abandoned carts after they were allowed to return to work.