Racine man charged in connection with bomb threats found at plant

RACINE (WITI) -- 27-year-old Jacob Vanderhoef of Racine has been charged in connection with a bomb threat at Proclain Hydraulics that occurred on October 29th.

Racine County Sheriff’s deputies responded to Proclain Hydraulics located at 1300 Grandview Parkway in the Town of Yorkville on the 29th.

Upon arrival, deputies located a note indicating that there was an explosive device in the building leading to an evacuation.

According to the criminal complaint, the note indicated the note's writer felt as though the company had wronged him -- and said, in part: “IN ONE OF YOUR CONTAINERS YOU DO hAVE A TIMED EXPLISiVE scheduled to go off the week of Halloween! I have no Intention on HARMING EMPLOYEES. HOWEVER If this is taken as a joke. A LOT of People Will Be HARMED. It’s TiME FOR A FRESH start-catch me if you caN ."

Racine Sheriff’s investigators immediately launched an investigation into the matter.

During the course of that investigation Sheriff’s investigators were made aware of another bomb threat made on 10/31/13.

The complaint indicates that note read: “I WARneD you NoT To TAKE This lightly! You aRe more WORRIED About ProduciNG than you the sAfety Of your staff. I TRiED GIVing You the chance to PROVE OtheRWiSE. You couldn’t Shutdown for A DAY, evAN That NiGHT! SHOWS HOW Much you Really value YouR EmPloYEES. If You thought a fire was the only Problem…No NEED to Worry About YouR Staff anYMORE. This HalloWEEN WiLL BE Full Of TrickS AND TREATS TODAY Will BE History!!!! ."

According to the criminal complaint, during the time in between the finding of the two notes, someone started a box on fire inside the plant.

Ultimately the Sheriff’s Office was able to identify and subsequently arrest Vanderhoef -- believed to be responsible for the threats.

The complaint says when interviewed, Vanderhoef admitted to leaving the notes inside the plant. Vanderhoef told officials he wanted Halloween off but didn't have any vacation time left.

The complaint says Vanderhoef said there was never any intention of a bomb going off, but he wanted to see how management would react -- saying he had hoped their reaction would be to shut down the plant for a few days.

Vanderhoef now faces two felony "bomb scare" charges. He made his initial appearance in court on Monday afternoon, November 4th.