Facebook Evacuated After Bomb Threat; Three Still Trapped Inside
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Facebook was evacuated four hours ago after 37-year-old Derek Reeves updated his status to read, "Derek Reeves has a bomb." As of this writing, three Facebook users are still trapped inside with Reeves; their exact location in the popular social networking website is unknown.
Users were notified of the evacuation via a mass Facebook message stating, "At 10:16am EST, reports were received that a user may be brandishing an explosive somewhere within Facebook. Please stay calm, sign out of Facebook, and exit your browser."
The evacuation was staged by founder Mark Zuckerberg. "It happened so incredibly fast," said Zuckerberg. "I got a call from [Facebook maintenance staff member] Alan [McAuliffe], very calm, who told me what happened. I said, 'Get those people out of there. Don't think; just pick up the phone and make it happen.'"
Authorities confirm that hostage negotiators have been sending private Facebook messages to Reeves, asking him to declare his intentions, whereabouts, and demands. Reeves has yet to respond. Also unclear is whether Reeves has managed to trap the three missing users – Amanda Dennison, Brian Falzone, and Kelly Baczewski – onto one
Invite page, or if he has even encountered them at all.
"It could also be the case that these three people are blithely unaware of what's going on," said one anonymous law enforcement official. "They could still be on their own profile pages, updating their Favorite TV Shows to include 'Mad Men' or wondering when Facebook changed 'Favorite Quotes' to the more grammatically correct 'Favorite Quotations.’"
A second anonymous law official floats another theory: "Maybe he did send them an Invite saying, 'Come Be Derek Reeves' Hostages!' and they just clicked Maybe Attending without even reading what it was all about."
Facebook users are still waiting outside their browsers, anxious to see how it plays out. Megan Hart was one of the last users to evacuate Facebook. "It was so weird to see this super-crowded place suddenly deserted," she said. "My News Feed was totally blank. Instead of bite-sized statements informing me about the minutiae of my friends' online activities, it said, 'None of your friends are currently using Facebook.' It was really, really, really, really eerie."
Not much has been released about Derek Reeves, the potential bomber himself. Officials only know that he is 37 years old, likes to meet new people and hang out with friends, visits only crowded parties or European countries with grassy knolls, and doesn't know the purpose of the new text box underneath his profile picture, as evidenced by his
query, "What is this box for?"
"I guess no place is safe from 37-year-olds," said Hart, anxious to get back inside so she can finish her list of 25 random things about herself. "Not even Facebook."
