EVERETT — A Lynnwood man is facing two felony charges after he allegedly threatened to blow up a Boston-area call center days after the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon.
Stewart Roger Brooks, Jr., 48, has admitted making the calls because he was angry about messages he was receiving from the LoJack Contact Center in Canton, Mass, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Mona Clarkson said in court papers filed Monday.
LoJack operates an automatic vehicle-recovery service that alerts customers by text, e-mail or phone if their car is moved without their authorization. The company had transposed two digits of a subscriber’s telephone number in its database and was mistakenly calling Brooks.
The defendant called the company multiple times on April 21, identified himself, and told workers that he was going to blow them up, Clarkson said in Snohomish County Superior Court documents. The call was recorded.
“You’re gonna blow the (expletive) up now. I’ll detonate your (expletive),” Brooks allegedly said during what the prosecutor described as “a tirade of profanities, obscenities, racial slurs and threats.”
One call center worker later said “it was the most frightening and disturbing” call he’d received in his seven years working in customer service.
The call center is about 20 miles from Boston. The calls were made six days after two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260.
The case was investigated by federal agents and local police. That led to the telephone owned by Brooks’ father. A subpoena for the phone records documented three calls placed to LoJack, according to court papers.
When investigators spoke with Brooks on April 25 he reportedly acknowledged making the calls.
“He said the Boston bombings were all over the television news and he had been watching,” Clarkson wrote. “He said he hoped to scare them with the threats and knew exactly what he was doing.”
Brooks now is charged with one count each of telephone harassment and threats to bomb, both felonies. He has a 1996 felony conviction for marijuana trafficking and a dozen misdemeanors.
He’s been free on $10,000 bail while prosecutors prepared their case.
Scott North: 425-339-3431, north@heraldnet.com
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