SEPTA Bomb Threat Defendant Identified In Montco

LANSDALE, PA — Local police have identified the man they allege caused a public catastrophe when he reportedly called police Monday afternoon while aboard a SEPTA commuter train and threatened to detonate a bomb while riding the mass transit line.

Lansdale Police said they arrested Roy Lawrence Robson, 35, of Ambler and charged him with three separate felony counts in connection with the bomb threat.

Those charges are terroristic threats causing an evacuation, terroristic threats causing a serious public inconvenience and bomb threats.

The charges stem from an incident a little after 3 Monday afternoon when a suspect called the Montgomery County 911 Emergency Dispatch Services line in Eagleville, Pa. stating that he was on a northbound SEPTA regional rail train heading into Lansdale with a bomb that he intended to detonate on the train, according to a news release from the Lansdale Police Department.

Lansdale officers and members of the Montgomery County Bomb Squad were sent to the scene and evacuated passengers from the train as it docked at the Lansdale station, police said.

Police "swiftly located and arrested" Robson when the train arrived at the station, police said, and while investigators searched for any evidence of an explosive device, none was found.

Records from magisterial district court show that Robson was arraigned on Tuesday morning before Judge Andrea Hudak Duffy.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 16 before Magisterial District Judge Ed Levine.

An earlier story from Patch about the incident can be found here.

A possible motive for the bomb threat was not immediately made public.