Bomb Threat Spree ln North Suburbs Leads To Arrest Of Skokie Man

SKOKIE, IL — A Skokie man is accused of threatening a series of bombings and shootings across at least five north suburban municipalities.

Jacob Spiro, 23, started his spree of false alarms on March 26 when he placed a call to the Cook County Sheriff's Office's anonymous tip line claiming that his boss at the Goodwill, 2740 Old Willow Road, had a bomb in their car, prosecutors said.

Spiro's boss told police he had recently seemed agitated after a performance review and was the most likely candidate to have called in a bomb threat, according to Assistant State's Attorney Clara Malkin.

Earlier this month, Spiro allegedly used an automated female voice — Malkin said Spiro later told police he used Google Translate — and an unactivated phone that could only call 911 to call in a half-dozen threats to various locations around Niles Township.

"It always seems to be characters that appeared quite similar to the defendant standing before the court that end up being individuals that we're shocked and appalled at the havoc they're able to wreck upon the community," Cook County Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese said Wednesday at his initial court hearing in Skokie.

Shortly before 8 p.m. on Oct. 2, Skokie police got a call from a voice Spiro is accused of programming that claimed bombs had been placed at the Skokie Public Library. The next night, Spiro called in a threat to his old school, Niles North High School.

And the night after that, Malkin said Des Plaines police got a similar call from an automated voice claiming there was "a gas leak and hidden explosives" at the Mariano's, 10 E. Golf Road in Des Plaines. Spiro worked at the grocery store, his defense attorney said.

Spiro is next accused of a false 911 call to his own block, with the voice claiming on the morning of Oct. 6 that there were bombs on the roof of an apartment building and that he would "shoot anyone who gets in the way." The next day, he threatened "I am going to kill people" at the Dollar Tree, 7943 Golf Road in Morton Grove.

The spree ended Monday after officers investigating a caller claiming to have "created a gas leak at Wendy's and placed an explosive" at the 8309 Golf Road eatery in Niles, recognized Spiro's car from the scenes of the previous threats, the prosecutor said.

Spiro faces seven felony counts, including two class 1 felony charges of falsely making a terrorist threat.

"By the state's reading of the statute, none of these offenses are detainable," said Malkin.

"To my surprise, it does not fall within the court's even, discretion, to hold [Spiro] in custody," said defense attorney Steven Goldman.

Calabrese agreed that none of the charges appeared to be detainable.

"So I have zero discretion," said the judge. "As Mr. Goldman pointed out, I have no alternative other than to release the defendant back into the community despite these seven separate cases."

Earlier in the same court call, prosecutors said the law also prevented them from seeking the detention of a man who had been charged with aggravated battery to police and another who had been charged with aggravated battery with strangulation and unlawful restraint because it was not charged as a domestic offense — it had only allegedly been his first date with the woman he was accused of choking and restraining.

"It is a clear assessment of the current state of the law that I do not have the ability to protect the public in a way that I would wish to from the potential danger presented by [Spiro], that is the current state of the law," Calabrese said. "The notion that [he] can be detained is off the table, now it's a question of finding the least restrictive terms."

In Spiro's case, Calabrese denied the request from the state's attorney's office that Spiro be denied any access to a telephone but granted its request that he remain under electronic monitoring after Malkin argued the Skokie man had told investigators he was motivated by how much he enjoyed watching the police response to his threats.

"[Spiro] stated that he knew it was wrong but he liked the excitement," Malkin said.

Spiro is due back at the Skokie courthouse to be indicted on the morning of Nov. 13.