An e-mailed bomb threat closed Building A of the Kane County Government Center from about 1:35 p.m. to 2:05 p.m. today (Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018).

No one was hurt.

The email, sent to the address of Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen, suggested that there was a bomb in the building and possibly an intruder. It asked for 20,000 bitcoin, the equivalent of $66,456,200 in U.S. currency.

Building A was evacuated for a half hour, while Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain, Office of Emergency Management personnel and a Kane County bomb technician entered the building with a bomb dog.

“We received information of similar threats across the country,” Hain said. “In response (to the Kane County threat), we entered the building and conducted the search. There were no alerts indicated by the bomb dog.”

Officials said similar threats were made to public institutions in Kane County, throughout the Chicago area and across the United States. The Chicago Tribune reports that threats were made to at least four sites in Aurora this afternoon, including City Hall, the public library, and Rush-Copley Medical Center.

This article will be updated when more information is available from official sources.

Kane County E-Mail Threat Text

The following paragraphs are excerpts from the email threat texted to Kane County.

—–Original Message—–
Subject: You are responsible for people

Good day.  I write you to inform you that my mercenary has hidden an explosive device (Hexogen) in the building where your business is conducted. It is assembled according to my guide. It can be hidden anywhere because of its small size, it is impossible to damage the supporting building structure by this explosive device, but you will get many wounded people if it explodes.

My mercenary keeps the building under the control. If any strange activity or emergency is noticed the bomb will be exploded.

I can withdraw my recruited person if you make a transfer. You send me $20’000 in BTC and explosive will not explode, but do not try to deceive me — I guarantee you that I have to withdraw my recruited person only after 3 confirmations in blockchain network.

You must send money by the end of the working day, if you are late with the payment the device will explode.

This is just a business, if I do not receive the bitcoin and a bomb explodes, other commercial enterprises will send me more bitcoins, because this isnt a one-time action.

I will no longer enter this email account. I check my Bitcoin address every 30 min and if I see the bitcoins I will give the command to my recruited person to get away.

If the explosive device detonates and the authorities read this letter — We aren’t the terrorist society and do not take responsibility for acts of terrorism in other buildings.