By Patricia Bogumil
A man who reportedly wanted time off from work to celebrate Halloween now has plenty of time off as an inmate of the Racine County Jail.
Charged with two felony counts of making bomb scare threats at his workplace in the Town of Yorkville is Jacob Vanderhoef, 27, Racine.
According to the criminal complaint filed Nov. 4 in Racine County Criminal Court:
On Oct. 29, Vanderhoef, an employee of Poclain Hydraulics in the GrandView Business Park, said he had found a note in the dock area.
The note warned that a timed explosive device had been placed in one of the company’s containers and was “scheduled to go off the week of Halloween!”
On Oct. 31, a second note was found on an opened skid. In-between the time the two warning notes were found, someone had started a box on fire inside the Poclain plant.
The Oct. 31 note complained that, in response to the first note, Poclain “couldn’t shutdown for a day, even that night! Shows how much you really value your employees. If you thought a fire was the only problem…”
The Oct. 31 note warned “this Halloween will be full of tricks and treats today will be history!”
Police noted each time notes were found, the building was evacuated and dozens of officers, as well as the bomb squad, responded to determine if the threat was real.
During their investigation at the plant, officers found a note containing very similar handwriting to that contained on both warning notes.
This third note was then traced back to Vanderhoef, who reportedly admitted he had left both warning notes inside the factory floor.
Police say Vanderhoef explained he wanted Halloween off from work but didn’t have any vacation time left.
Vanderhoef reportedly said there was no intention for a bomb to go off; instead, he just wanted to see how management would react and hoped the plant would shut down for a couple of days.
Vanderhoef also reportedly said he was unhappy that Poclain had its employees return to work so quickly, which is why he wrote the second note, and that he wasn’t trying to make the company look bad, but just wanted a few days off.
Vanderhoef made an initial court appearance Nov. 4; a $2,000 cash bond was set, with conditions that he have no contact with his former employer. As of press time, he remains an inmate at the Racine County Jail.
Vanderhoef is next scheduled in court Nov. 20 for an initial appearance. If convicted of both bomb scare charges, he faces a maximum of $20,000 in fines; 7 years in prison; or both.
Earlier fire at Poclain
This was the second time this year Poclain has needed fire/police assistance.
On July 5, plastic pallets outside the Poclain facility started on fire that afternoon, scorching the side of the building.
Union Grove-Yorkville Fire Chief Tom Czerniak said Nov. 5 that the cause of the July 5 fire remains unknown.
But the origin of that fire is considered questionable, he explained, because plastic pallets don’t just start on fire by accident.
The pallets were in an area without camera monitoring, Czerniak added, and the plant was in shutdown on July 5, with only a few employees at work that day.
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