Welcome to Arrest Stories. A sixteen-year-old Winter Haven High School student has been arrested after allegedly making threatening phone calls to two Polk County schools, claiming he had weapons and planned to take hostages. Here's what may have happened.
On Monday, September fifteenth, twenty twenty-five, what started as a normal school day quickly turned into a nightmare scenario for two local high schools. At eleven oh five in the morning, Auburndale High School received a chilling phone call from someone claiming to be a male student armed with an AK-forty-seven rifle.
The caller allegedly stated, "You need to find me before I go into a classroom and take hostages." Just six minutes later, at eleven eleven, Winter Haven High School received a similar threatening call from the same phone number, with the caller indicating plans to "shoot-up the school at some point today."
Law enforcement immediately launched an investigation, tracing both calls to a single phone number registered to a Lake Alfred woman. The trail led them to sixteen-year-old Blake Maynard, a sophomore at Winter Haven High School. According to police reports, when confronted, Maynard initially attempted to deflect blame onto his stepfather before authorities determined his involvement.
The incident highlights the serious consequences of making false threats against schools. As one official emphasized, "Phone calls like this aren't funny; they're not pranks, nor jokes. To the contrary, we are going to take each and every one of these type of calls seriously. And you can bet that anybody stupid enough to fool around like this is going to find out when we charge them with very serious criminal charges."
Maynard now faces multiple felony charges including two counts of False Report of a Weapon of Mass Destruction, two counts of Use of a Two-way Communication Device in Commission of a Felony, and one count of Providing False Information to Law Enforcement during an Investigation.
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.