Portland man gets home detention for Max Train bomb hoax

A 60-year-old Portland man was sentenced Tuesday to three years’ probation, including eight months of home detention, for falsely reporting a suspicious package on a TriMet MAX train, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

According to court records, on June 9, 2017, Wilifredo Reyes called 911 to report a suspicious package with protruding wires on a MAX train in Portland.

During the call, he intentionally conveyed false and misleading information that led the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications and local law enforcement to believe an explosive had been planted on the MAX train, prosecutors said.

TriMet police and more than 40 officers from several agencies responded to the scene. The Metropolitan Explosive Disposal Unit rendered the device safe and concluded that it did not contain a bomb.

Surveillance cameras revealed that Reyes boarded the train with a backpack, placed it in a seat, walked to another part of the train and proceeded to call 911. He was interviewed by officers at the scene and initially denied being the caller.

After the backpack was determined not to contain a bomb, officers found items in it with Reyes’s name on them. He was arrested and admitted to owning the backpack and arranging the contents to look like a bomb.

“Reyes’ conduct caused a substantial disruption to multiple law enforcement agencies and local businesses,” the news release stated. “Two business near the Hollywood/NE 42nd Avenue MAX station were evacuated. The station, several streets, and the westbound lanes of Interstate 84 were closed during the investigation.”

Reyes previously pleaded guilty to one count of conveying a hoax bomb threat in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1038(a) on April 26.

The Portland FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated this case in coordination with its first response partners Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire and Rescue and TriMet. The case was prosecuted by Hannah Horsley, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.