Woodstock man pleads guilty to making false bomb threat, sentenced to 2 years conditional discharge

Patrick Bangeman, 76, said he thought he was calling a ‘spam’ phone number

Patrick Bangeman

A 76-year-old Woodstock man pleaded guilty Thursday to making a false bomb threat last year in a phone call to a national real estate company and was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge and ordered to undergo an anger evaluation.

Patrick Bangeman, initially charged with disorderly conduct as a class 3 felony, pleaded guilty as part of a negotiated plea to the same charge as a lesser class 4 felony.

A class 4 felony can carry a sentence of one to three years in prison, or three to six years if the defendant is eligible for an extended term. The charge also is probational.

On March 28, authorities said Bangeman called Realtor.com and Move Inc. in Santa Clara, California, and said a bomb or some other explosive device “was concealed in a place where its explosion would endanger human life” knowing there was no bomb or explosive device on site, according to the indictment filed in the McHenry County courthouse.

He said the bomb would go off in the building within 25 minutes, according to the criminal complaint.

After pleading guilty, Bangeman told Judge Tiffany Davis he did not realize he was calling a real estate company, but thought he was calling a “spam” phone number that had displayed on his phone as an incoming call.

“I caused a lot of people trouble for no reason, and I take responsibility for that,” he said.

Realtor.com and Move Inc. are real estate listing companies, according to their websites.

He also is ordered to pay $648 in fines and fees and during his conditional discharge, have no contact with the company, turn in any firearms in his possession, give up his firearm owners identification card, not leave the state without permission, and not violate any laws, Davis said.

He was sentenced to eight days in county jail but with credit for four days served after his arrest, the jail time is considered satisfied.

At the time of his arrest in May, Woodstock Police Chief John Leib said what Bangeman was accused of “was serious.”

The phone call he made resulted in the evacuation of more than 1,000 employees from nine call center locations in five states, Leib said.

“They don’t know which facility that this could have been in,” Leib said. “Think of the toll that it took emotionally, psychologically on all of those individuals.”

He is due back in court on status of his anger evaluation April 6.