GRANT, Mich. (WOOD) – Police in Grant say the local high school was the target of a hoax threat Thursday, one of several that have been broadcast across the country.

On Thursday, a report came through a third-party crisis intervention line of “an unknown male standing in front of Grant High School with an AR-15 rifle, preparing to enter the school,” the Police Department said Grant in a statement. Police learned of the reported threat around 11:55 a.m

As a precaution, all Grant Public Schools were placed in “secure mode” — a security measure for potential outside threats where doors are locked and everyone stays inside — while authorities investigated. Police say they have seen no sign of the reported suspect and neither school has seen any suspicious person enter. To be safe, officers say they searched every school in the district. They found no threat, so the schools were released from lockdown, according to the release.

The Grant Police Department says the initial call was traced to an IP address originating out of the country. According to police, the IP address was also used in at least 13 other calls in the United States, all of which happened at the same time.

“In each of these incidents, the reported threat was the same and only the name of the alleged suspect changed,” the statement said.

Police called it a hoax incident, which they described as “a dangerous prank intended to provoke an emergency response to a fabricated threat.”

The Grant Police Department says it is sharing information with the FBI and the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center so they can investigate.

Newaygo Public Schools said in a social media post that it also went into safe mode on Thursday, noting that the step was taken out of caution and that there was “no credible threat”. Around 1:20 p.m. Thursday, the district was no longer in secure mode. It was unclear if the situation at Newaygo Public Schools was related to the beating incident at Grant High School.

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