The Princeton Shopping Center on North Harrison Street was evacuated on Wednesday evening due to a bogus bomb threat, commonly known as swatting. As of 7:30 p.m., stores were still closed, including McCaffrey’s Food Market. Swatting calls are difficult to trace, because callers often use computers.

New Jersey toughened penalties for swatting in 2015. Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, D-Gloucester, and signed by then Gov. Chris Christie upgraded making a false public alarm from a third to a second-degree crime in situations where there is a report or warning of an impending bombing, a hostage situation, or a person armed with a deadly weapon. People convicted of swatting in New Jersey can face five to 10 years in prison and be required to pay restitution for costs were incurred by law enforcement to respond to such calls.

A previous edition of this story reported that the shopping center was evacuated due to a gas leak. Planet Princeton regrets the error.

Krystal Knapp

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.

4 Comments

The police told us it was a bomb threat not a gas leak.

Krystal Knapp says:

March 11, 2021 at 9:52 am

Thanks Dave. Appreciate the comment. Story updated. Couldn’t get any info. from police last night. -Krystal

I miss when they had good Dispatchers in Princeton.

From conversation with the lovely folks at Nino’s Pizza Star the day after, it sounded as if insurance wouldn’t cover their loss of business that evening ((had to be more than 24 hours, apparently).

So give some extra business and appreciation to all the places that had to close Wednesday evening.

PS a special shout-out for Nino’s chicken noodle soup!

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