Looking back: Man calls police department and says there’s a bomb at local hospital, then robs bank and escapes

A musical extravaganza featuring all sixth-grade students in school Idaho Falls School District 91 and the district youth symphony was going to be held at Skyline High School. May 1976. | Courtesy The Rigby Star
IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of May 13 to May 19 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
RIGBY — The Rigby “orchestra boys” were returning from playing at a dance when they were in an accident, but miraculously, they all survived, The Rigby Star reported on May 16, 1912.
It was “very dark” and the boys were “obliged to walk ahead of the horses in some places to find the road.”
“They came upon a bridge which had no railing on the sides and the buggy fell off to one side, throwing its occupants, Carl Olsen, Frank Woffinden, Fred Christensen and O.J. Hansen, out of the vehicle and pulling the horses with them,” the paper explained.
The boys only suffered a “few scratches” and Hansen had a “slightly wrenched hip.”
“They were obliged to secure a lantern before the horses could be released and the party finished the balance of their trip on horseback,” the article states. “The orchestra drums being the only injured members of the party.”
1926-1950
ANNIS — An Annis man “mysteriously disappeared” and the community began searching for him, The Rigby Star reported on May 16, 1929.
Earl Hall left his home Tuesday morning to work on a ditch on his farm and that evening, he never returned home.
“It was thought by members of the family that he had been drowned and a search was made along the river,” the article mentioned.
But Wednesday morning, “the first trace of Mr. Hall” was found at Roberts when the sheriff was informed that Hall cashed a check at the Gibson store.
“He made the statement that he would go north to look for work and it is the supposition of his parents that he went to Butte, the former home of the Halls,” the local paper wrote.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Hall had not been found.
1951-1975
REXBURG — Local law enforcement was searching for an armed man who robbed the Idaho Bank of Commerce in Rexburg, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on May 13, 1972.
“No new leads were uncovered Friday night,” the article wrote. “Existing leads are being rechecked by county and police officers in a virtual reenactment of the crime in daylight hours.”
It was reported that over $10,000 was taken. The paper said it appeared to be a “two-pronged approach to his project.”
“The robber apparently first called the Rexburg Police Department at 11:30 a.m. Thursday announcing that a bomb had been placed in the Madison Memorial Hospital set to explode within 40 minutes,” the paper explained. “An alarm indicating a robbery at the Idaho Bank of Commerce was received at about 11:55 a.m.”
Law enforcement agencies immediately set up road blocks on surrounding highways, but the robber was not apprehended Thursday, according to Russell Cecil, FBI special agent in charge of the Idaho Falls office.
1976-2000
CHUBBUCK — A cat — “widely rumored” to be black — made the front page of a local paper after it got caught in power lines in Chubbuck on Friday the 13, the Idaho State Journal reported on May 13, 1977.
The cat got stuck in the lines around 4:45 a.m. and knocked out electricity in an area south of Siphon Road for about an hour. For a smaller area of Chubbuck along Stuart Street, the lights didn’t come on again until 6:50 a.m.
“The animal electrocuted itself in the entanglement,” the Journal said.
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Source: eastidahonews.com