A 19-year-old worker was detained Tuesday on suspicion of phoning in bomb hoaxes to one of Moscow's largest shopping complexes because he wanted a day off work.
Moscow police and Federal Security Service agents arrested the male suspect around 4 a.m. for allegedly disguising his voice to sound like a woman and warning about a bomb at the Rumyantsevo business park in southwestern Moscow, police said.
"The young man, who worked at the business park, mimicked a female voice to make fake calls in order not to go to work," police said in a statement carried by Interfax.
The undisclosed suspect is accused of making three phone calls in two days, causing the authorities to evacuate the Rumyantsevo business park of 70,000 workers and shoppers each time.
He did manage to fool the police for awhile. After the initial evacuations, police said they were looking for a female suspect.
Police on Tuesday also seized several SIM cards from the suspect that he might have used to make the phone calls.
The suspect faces up to three years in prison if convicted of filing a false report about a terrorist attack.
Rumyantsevo bills itself as the largest office and shopping complex in southwestern Moscow, with more than 500 stores under its roof. It also has 7,000 parking spaces.
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