Campus Alert Archive
BCC

Two Anonymized Calls Empty All Three Bergen Campuses

NJbomb threatemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

On Monday, November 18, 2019, two telephoned bomb threats forced the evacuation of all three Bergen Community College campuses — in Paramus, Hackensack, and Lyndhurst, New Jersey. The calls, placed around 1 p.m. to Paramus police using technology to anonymize the caller ID, were investigated by Bergen County sheriff's K-9 units and found to be false, with classes resuming by roughly 3:30 p.m. An 18-year-old maintenance worker, Nicholas Donnarumma of Saddle Brook, was arrested the next day on terroristic-threats and false-public-alarm charges.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Bergen Community College
Community College · NJ
~13,000 studentsBCC Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction198 chars
BCC Alert: Due to a security concern, all campuses are being evacuated immediately. Leave the buildings now and follow instructions from police and staff. Do not return until an all-clear is issued.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed: the web environment blocks Bergen's alert archive, so this paraphrases the documented ~1 p.m. EST simultaneous evacuation of all three campuses on November 18, 2019.
A single phoned threat triggered evacuation of all three campuses — Paramus, Hackensack, and Lyndhurst — reflecting an abundance-of-caution posture for a multi-site institution.
The caller used technology to anonymize the caller ID, complicating the police response and the decision to evacuate broadly.
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstruction160 chars
BCC Alert: All clear. Law enforcement has searched the campuses and found no threat. Normal operations and classes have resumed. Thank you for your cooperation.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed all-clear: reporting indicated classes had resumed by roughly 3:30 PM EST after Bergen County sheriff's K-9 teams searched and found no device.
This is a genuine all-clear, explicitly resuming normal operations after the searches cleared all three campuses.
Context

Background

Bergen Community College is New Jersey's largest community college, operating campuses in Paramus, Hackensack, and Lyndhurst. On November 18, 2019, two bomb-threat calls placed to Paramus police around 1 p.m. forced the evacuation of all three campuses, with the caller using technology to mask the caller ID. Bergen County sheriff's K-9 units searched the buildings, determined the calls were false, and classes resumed by roughly 3:30 p.m. The next day, police arrested 18-year-old Nicholas Donnarumma, a maintenance worker from Saddle Brook, charging him with two counts each of false public alarm and terroristic threats; detectives also alleged he had phoned a bomb threat to a Saddle Brook business on October 27. Community colleges, with their open-access commuter populations spread across multiple sites, face a distinct version of the bomb-threat problem: a single anonymous call can disrupt thousands of students at three locations at once, as local coverage of the all-clear documented.
Analysis

Key Findings

A single anonymized phone threat forced the simultaneous evacuation of three separate campuses, multiplying the disruption of one hoax call
Bergen County sheriff's K-9 teams, not campus staff, performed the searches that produced the all-clear — typical for multi-site community colleges with limited in-house bomb resources
The arrest of an 18-year-old campus maintenance worker the following day illustrates that insiders, not only outsiders, generate campus threat calls
The hoax resolution and same-day all-clear show the recurring asymmetry of bomb threats: minutes to call in, hours to clear, and a federal-style felony charge to prosecute
Outcome
No device was found. Nicholas Donnarumma, 18, was arrested November 19, 2019, on two counts each of false public alarm and terroristic threats; detectives also tied him to an October 27 threat against a Saddle Brook business.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Man charged with calling in bomb threats to Bergen Community College - ABC7 New York
    abc7ny.com
  2. News
    Man Arrested Over Fake Bomb Threats That Evacuated New Jersey Community College - NBC New York
    nbcnewyork.com
  3. News
    BCC Reopens Following Bomb Threat - Patch
    patch.com
Tags
bomb-threathoaxevacuationemergency-notificationnew-jerseycommunity-collegemulti-campusHoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion