ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -
Photos of the suspect taken from surveillance video at the CU were being circulated by the FBI. In the Aug. 17 incident, the suspect left a black gym bag in a men's room stall, then called in a bomb threat the following morning. But the suspect did not demand money, according to Johnny Montoya, VP-marketing for the CU. "He's just some kind of a whack job," said Montoya.
Surveillance photos show the suspect coming into the CU and going into the restroom, where he apparently put an "out of order" sign on one of the stalls where he left the gym bag.
The Saturday morning bomb threat was confusing because when no one answered the phone at the main branch where the bag was left (because only the drive-thru is open on Saturdays), the suspect called another branch with the threat.
The CU then evacuated the building and the police bomb squad responded with an x-ray machine that detected wires that could have been connected to explosives, but it was later determined it was not a bomb.
Montoya said the incident was not related to a nationwide string of bomb threats called in to retailers and banks by someone demanding money. In the Bank of America incident in Albuquerque a suspect believed to be the same man kidnapped two employees in an adjacent doctor's office and forced them to wear fanny packs he said were bombs, then go to the bank and demand money. The victims were able to remove the fanny packs inside the bank as everyone evacuated the building. The fanny packs turned out not to be explosive, either.
The FBI, using surveillance video from the CU, identified the suspect as a male, around six-feet-six-inches tall, with a heavy build, 35 to 45 years old, who has gone to great lengths to disguise his appearance with fake eyebrows, and a long beard worn in the fashion of the rock 'n roll band ZZ Top.
