Mercer – Common Pleas President Judge Daniel P. Wallace said the case of two subway workers who wrote threatening letters in the Hermitage Walmart restroom cubicle to leave work early was the worst case he had ever seen. He said it was a strange crime.
Wallace on Friday sentenced Sky Mackenzie Bowser, 20, of 3490 Lamor Road in the Hermitage, to 18 months of probation.
Wallace pulled his ear when Bowser told him that the manager at the time who told her to write the threatening letter was still working for Subway at the chain’s Hermitage Town Plaza store, now in the Hermitage. I couldn’t believe it. That employment status was confirmed by Assistant District Attorney Jacob Sander.
“Just in case,” Wallace said.
Peter Ray Pope, 43, manager of 91 Lilac Drive, West Middlesex, said he did not contest making terrorist threats and is expected to be sentenced later this month.
“He told her to write a threatening letter so she could leave her job early and he’s still working there,” Wallace said.
Bowser, who is pregnant, did not update his employment status.
At 6:57 pm on June 15, police and firefighters responded after a customer told an employee about the bomb threat posted on the front bathroom concession stand, according to the police criminal complaint.
Police said someone had written a threatening note to the women’s and men’s restroom kiosks, saying there was a bomb in the toy section and another in the store.
The police evacuated and closed the store. Police said three of his K-9s that detected the bomb searched the store, including both restrooms, while the office and craft corridor were searched for evidence, but nothing happened. It is said that
Two days later, police learned through Walmart security that a Subway employee had reported that her manager, Pope, had tried to talk her into writing a bomb threat in the bathroom.
After the employee refused, police said Pope asked Bowser to do it.
Video surveillance shows that Pope went to the restroom at 5:13pm that day and Bowser went to the women’s restroom at 6:09pm that day.
Minutes after Bowser returned to Subway, Pope was seen contacting a Walmart employee, who told police a customer had told him there was a bomb in the store.
Bowser said in an interview that Pope wrote her a bomb threat and asked her to leave work early. He told her to speak, and he reported it to a Walmart employee, police said.
In an interview with police, Pope denied writing anything on the bathroom wall or telling anyone to do so.
