A 22-year-old New Jersey Target worker was allegedly caught on video leaving her station to phone in a bomb threat to the Edgewater store where she was on duty over the weekend.
Jossi Duarte left the Edgewater Commons retailer with other employees when authorities evacuated the building Saturday afternoon, then returned to finish her shift an hour later when the store re-opened, according to NJ.com. She was reportedly arrested at home in West New York on Saturday at 10:30 p.m.
Bergen County jailhouse records show the suspect is a Honduran citizen who is charged with second-degree false public alarm and the third-degree making of terroristic threats.
Duarte works as an AT&T sales representative inside the box store located less than nine miles northwest of Grand Central Terminal. Surveillance cameras reportedly spotted her leaving her post and calling in the threat from her cell phone in a nearby aisle around 1:41 p.m.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit and Edgewater Fire Department reportedly cleared out the Target store before determining there was no danger. It’s not clear why Duarte might have made a false bomb threat against her place of employment. The Bergen County Sheriff’s Department couldn’t immediately be reached for further information.
A map of the Edgewater Commons shows Target is the anchor store of a complex near the Hudson River that also includes an ACME, T.J. Maxx and Old Navy as well as an Outback Steakhouse.
