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Police: Morton man tried to get friends out of work with bomb threat

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 24-year-old Morton resident arrested for allegedly threatening to blow up a lumber mill yesterday may have been trying to get his buddies a day off from work, according to police.

Police were called to Alta Forest Products at the north end of town about 8 a.m. following a phone call that prompted authorities to evacuate the premises and send employees home for the day.

Alta’s mill in Shelton was also vacated because they didn’t know if the threat was site specific, Morton Police Chief Dan Mortensen said this morning.

A bomb squad with the Washington State Patrol checked the property and found no explosive, Mortensen said.

Meanwhile, the chief traced the call back to a cell phone belonging to Marcus T. Dantinne, 24, of Morton. He was contacted at his residence on Collar Avenue at about noon, Mortensen said.

Dantinne doesn’t work at the lumber mill, nor was he a dissatisfied customer, according to Mortensen.

“It appeared he might have made the call because he wanted to hang out with some of his friends, and they had to work,” Mortensen said.

Dantinne was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for making a bomb threat, a felony.

Alta, located on the 300 block of state Route 7, manufactures Western Red Cedar fence boards.

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For background, read “News brief: Threat of bomb clears Morton lumber mill” from Monday November 17, 2014, here [1]