BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
Starke police and Bradford deputies evacuated Starke’s Walmart for an hour and a half yesterday after a customer commented about a bomb.
Later that day, police arrested 84-year-old Robert Lee Cain of Graham for making a bomb threat.
According to an arrest report, the incident began around noon when Cain saw a Walmart associate in one of the retailer’s aisles and said the store was crowded.
“It always is,” replied the store employee, according to the report. “The male subject then continued, ‘If a bomb went off right now, all the associates would die.’”
The employee then relayed the exchange to the store manager, who called 911.
Cain left the store in a blue pickup. Police later found him at his home.
Starke police Lt. Jason Green said officials cleared the store after a dog from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit checked the building for explosives.
