Anthony Jeremy Reed, 33, of Clearwater, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on Monday night and charged with making a false report about planting a bomb or explosive, a second-degree felony, according to Pinellas County court records.
Reed is being held without bond, according to an arrest report.
Reed's alleged threat happened at a Walmart in Clearwater and comes less than two weeks after mass shootings at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and outside a nightspot in Dayton, Ohio. Twenty-two people died in the Texas shooting and nine were killed in Ohio.
According to the arrest report by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Reed was talking with an employee in the toy department of the Walmart when he made a threat, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“I’m serious about my money,” Reed is quoted as saying in the arrest report. “If I get home and this is broken, I’m going to snap and come back here with a gun.”
Surveillance video identified Reed, the Times reported. Investigators said Reed later admitted to making the threat but said he was joking and did not have a gun, the newspaper reported.
"The Clearwater Police Department takes seriously all threats of violence, and we will investigate them all with the same vigor and resources," Clearwater police spokesman Rob Shaw told the Times. "Saying you are going to come back to a store armed with a gun is not a joking matter. And there will be repercussions for such behavior, as there was in this case."
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