JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE: The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said it responded to several locations on Saturday regarding a bomb investigation that's been determined "not to be a threat," according to a statement from JSO.
"Occupants of those locations voluntarily evacuated and JSO K-9s responded," a JSO spokesperson said.
Around 4 p.m. Saturday, a First Coast News employee was inside the Planet Fitness on Beach Boulevard when officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office told everyone inside to evacuate the building.
An officer on the scene told the employee that the location and six other Planet Fitness locations in Jacksonville were being evacuated due to a bomb threat.
First Coast News crews on the scene said police set a perimeter in the Planet Fitness parking lot, which is inside a shopping plaza.
A heavy police presence was also spotted at another Planet Fitness off Fort Caroline Road Saturday evening.
An officer at that scene told First Coast News that officers were also responding to a bomb threat at the location.
An employee at the Old St. Augustine Road Planet Fitness location told First Coast News they also evacuated due to a bomb threat.
The impact of all this went beyond just the gyms themselves.
“We had a police officer come in and tell us we needed to evacuate quickly," said Hounds Town Owner Nancy Yamamoto.
Yamamoto didn’t have time to ask questions when she was told to evacuate her pet boarding store Hounds Town.
After all, she and her team were taking care of half a dozen dogs, so they to make sure they were safe first.
“So we secured the dogs into their townhomes, got them watered, then headed out of the building," said Yamamoto.
Yamamoto learned she had to leave her store because of a bomb threat at the Planet Fitness next door.
As police rolled out caution tape around the perimeter, more and more of Yamamoto’s customers arrived to pick up their dogs.
Only, she couldn’t get to them.
“Owners that came to pick up, I just let them know their dogs are in secure areas, even though the police officer said where they are located should be pretty safe," said Yamamoto.
The Beach Boulevard Planet Fitness plaza was taped off for about an hour and a half.
An hour after she was supposed to close, Yamamoto was able to get back in her store to fetch the dogs and call their owners to come pick them up.
“I think it’s very random," said Yamamoto. "It’s not specifically happening here to us, so I guess it could be anywhere, any time.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a statement:
“We responded to several locations in the city in reference to a reported bomb investigation which has since been determined not to be a threat. Occupants of those locations voluntarily evacuated and JSO K9s responded.”
The Planet Fitness Regional Director was not immediately avaliable for comment on this story.