Two teenage boys, one from Chehalis and the other from Napavine, are being investigated by the United States Secret Service after making threatening phone calls that referred to President Barack Obama three weeks ago.
A Secret Service agent from the Seattle office came to Lewis County on Thursday to find the owner of the cellphone that was used to make the threatening calls, according to Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Rob Snaza.
The agent and Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies spent Thursday afternoon searching the county before finding the teenagers in the Napavine area.
“The Secret Service checked various locations and were finally able to track down the owner of the phone,” Snaza said. “The juveniles did confess that they made the prank phone calls. They were very well educated by the time the Secret Service left.”
The Secret Service interviewed the boys. No arrests were made.
Snaza said the boys prank-called a woman who formerly lived in Washington but had moved to Washington, D.C., with her husband. The woman told her husband, who is currently serving overseas in the military, about the inappropriate phone calls.
The husband then contacted his superiors, who in turn contacted the FBI and eventually the Secret Service.
It is not clear how the boys got the woman’s number or if they knew her.
Most likely, the calls were made randomly, Snaza said.
“The phone calls were made early in the morning and were derogatory to the president,” Snaza said. “You don’t want to make those kind of statements. You will be tracked down.”
The Secret Service’s investigation is ongoing.
Bob Kierstead, an assistant special agent for the Secret Service branch in Seattle, said he could not talk in detail about the case but did say it was doubtful any arrests would be made.
The Secret Service office in Seattle covers 19 counties in Western Washington.
“The Secret Service does take every threat seriously,” Kierstead said. “We are out there to investigate every threat that is reported to us.”
