Bank to reimburse Ashland’s bomb scare costs

ASHLAND - Bank of America agreed yesterday to reimburse the town for its response to a bomb scare sparked by a misprinted internal bank fax.

Town officials and Bank of America will work together to iron out how much Ashland is owed for the scare and evacuation Wednesday at Ledgemere Plaza on Eliot Street.
Town Manager John Petrin said Bank of America called him yesterday before he had a chance to contact the bank and request reimbursement. "They were putting good faith effort forward," Petrin said.
Bank of America thinks employees at its Ashland branch acted appropriately to what they thought was a serious threat, said Ernesto Anguilla, a spokesman at the bank’s Boston offices.

In addition, "we do recognize yesterday’s incident greatly inconvenienced law enforcement and those in the plaza at the time, and we apologize for the inconvenience," Anguilla said.
The town mainly wanted Bank of America to cover overtime costs for police and firefighters who responded to the scene, Petrin said. Many emergency responders were pulled in from time off.
Bank employees called police after receiving a fax with images of a match lighting a bomb fuse and a timer counting down.
The document turned out to be an internal promotional flier, but a faulty fax machine somehow left off all text that would have explained the message, Anguilla said Wednesday.
The botched fax went out to other branches throughout the Northeast. Bank employees also were spooked by a "suspicious" package dropped off after the fax arrived, though the package also turned out to be harmless.
The scare resulted in a more than two-hour evacuation of the entire shopping plaza.
Police Chief Scott Rohmer has said 10 to 12 police officers responded to the scene along with 12 to 15 firefighters. A state police bomb squad and emergency responders from Holliston and Sherborn also answered the call.
Petrin said he hopes to iron out a dollar figure for the reimbursement early next week when Rohmer and Fire Chief Bill Kee submit payroll information.
Source : http://news.bostonherald.com