Bomb threat closes part of downtown

Jace Radke

Monday, March 29, 1999 | 11:51 a.m.

Part of downtown Las Vegas was closed Sunday after a man called a mental health facility and said he was thinking about setting off a bomb.

At about 10:30 a.m. officials of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health notified Metro Police, who found the man, Frank Alexander, 53, at a pay phone in the 300 block of South Main Street.

Alexander led officers to his room at the Budget Inn, 301 S. Main St., where police found what they said could be parts to an explosive device.

"We can't elaborate on what was found in the room because it's part of an ongoing investigation," Officer Steve Meriwether said.

Whatever was found in the room was enough for the officers to call in the bomb squad and evacuate about 200 people from surrounding hotels and businesses.

Police blocked off Main from Lewis to Carson avenues for about five hours as a safety precaution. Many of those evacuated were working or staying at the nearby Nevada and Victory hotels.

Alexander was arrested and charged with at least one and possibly more counts of attempting to manufacture an explosive device, Meriwether said.

Alexander checked into the Budget Inn Saturday night, the hotel's assistant manager, Ralph Ruetze, said.

"I didn't check him in, but the person who did probably wouldn't have given him a room if he had looked suspicious," Ruetze said. "You never can tell."

Ruetze said the five-hour intervention by the bomb squad probably cost his hotel money.

"I was supposed to come in at 3 (p.m.), but we couldn't get in until 5," Ruetze said. "Basically it turned a nice Sunday into crap, but there's nothing you can really do about it."