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Police: Meridian woman arrested after threatening to “blow up banks”

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MERIDIAN — A Meridian woman has been arrested after police say she made telephoned bomb threats to two Meridian banks Monday.

Camilla Jones, 33, was booked into the Ada County Jail Monday afternoon.

Jones entered a bank in the 1600 block of Main Street Monday morning “and inquired about an account that didn’t exist,” according to Meridian Police Deputy Chief Tracy Basterrechea.

Apparently becoming angered, Jones reportedly told a bank employee “she was going to blow their bank up,” he said.

About 10:45 a.m., Jones reportedly called two banks from her cell phone -– both the bank on Main Street and another bank in the 3000 block of Cherry Lane -- making threats regarding explosives, according to reports.

Police soon received a tip regarding Jones’ whereabouts and found the woman in a vehicle parked in a residential neighborhood near Cherry Lane and Todd Way.

Officers approached the vehicle, but she refused the officers’ commands to unlock the doors, police said.

“So our officers had to break a window of the vehicle to get her out,” Basterrceha stated. Checking the vehicle’s license plate, officers discovered the vehicle had been reported stolen several weeks prior from a parking lot of a Meridian gym, he added.

“We also recovered some road flares she had put together to look like a device the day before, when threats were made against family members,” he said. “And we’ve have had similar dealings with the suspect, in which she (reportedly made) previous threats to blow up banks.”

Jones now faces charges of making false reports of explosives (two counts), conspiring to use a distributive device in a hoax, and grand theft. All are felonies. She’s also facing a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.