At one large company’s headquarters, the following list of questions can be found on each employee’s desk, next to their phone. They are printed on a long pink card and they detail questions you are supposed to ask if you pick up the phone and the person is calling in a bomb threat. There were a few more questions, but the most choice are:
1. Where is it?
2. When is it going to explode?
3. What does it look like?
4. What kind of bomb is it?
5. Did you place the bomb?
6. Why?
7. What is your name and address?
What other questions would you like to add to this list?
Please note, this post and this list of questions is NOT an April Fool’s Day joke. It is entirely factual, to the best of our knowledge.
A quick shout out to a reader from Pennsylvania for sending in this list. As always, we encourage each of you to send in email about the quirky events in your own life.
Hey, I appreciate the desire to ask questions like ‘Where is the bomb?’ and ‘What is your name?’, but if there is any chance the bomber answers those, is there is a list of secondary questions like ‘How do we defuse the bomb?’ and ‘Should we cut the red wire or the blue wire’?
On rare occasion, we have to deal with issues like this in my job (employees call us to tell us that they are going to do something at their job). Anyway, I am always amazed at the amount of detail people are willing to give. If it were me, I would refuse to answer any of those questions. It just does not make sense to me at all!
@ Liam: Definitely worth an ask on those questions.
@ meaghan: I presume the postal service has your direct line….
I would want to know (i) about any secondary devices and (ii) who is the primary target (i.e., the boss). Additionally, I have a firm rule regarding dying at work and I think I would be more likely to leave after taking this call than to report it to authorities and stick around to help.
I have this pink sheet at my office too. I’m glad I’ve never had to use it.
Does it seem plausible that the caller would answer these questions? And which answerer would stay to hear said answers?
Some employer actually believes that its employee (you!) should wait on the line and act in a police capacity if there’s a bomb threat? Um, no. I would find out when the bomb is supposed to go off (in order to prevent myself from being blown up), and then I would hang up and head to the nearest exit.
The reception desk at my high-school had this sign (or something like it) posted.
I also had a professor in college who had it next to his phone…that always used to creep me out when I had to go to his office to ask questions about the homework. Of course, he wasn’t a particularly easy, personable or popular professor, so perhaps he felt he needed this list at hand.