In today's world of both foreign and domestic terrorism you can never be too safe when someone makes a threat. That's what happened last week when someone called in a bomb threat to the Butler County Courthouse.

We commend the swift action of the first responders including the Greenville Police and Fire Departments and the Sheriff's Office. Butler County E-911 also did an excellent job of coordinating communication among the agencies and making sure everyone knew where each other was and what their needs were.

While the threat thankfully turned out to be a hoax, our world, and certainly that of the United States of America has changed since September 11, 2001 and threats such as these have extra emphasis placed on them. The fact that the person who perpetrated the hoax is subject to being charged with a felony is just fine with us. By all rights, they should be locked up for their crimes and we encourage our law enforcement officials to look under every rock for the person who perpetrated the crime and then exact the measure of justice that they have coming to them.

Who knows what the mindset of the person was. Were they just playing a joke? Did they have a beef with a county agency? Maybe they just had a few screws loose. Who knows, but their actions caused many businesses downtown to shut their doors due to being evacuated for their own safety. That means they lost income and there will be a little less bread on the table for the families of those business owners and those they employ.

But then again, someone who has the small mind that the hoaxer did doesn't see the big picture of their actions. They perpetrate their crime and think nothing of it, going about their business like what they did created no harm.

No harm, no foul? We don't think so.