Jason R. Patnou

     The Sheriff's Office has arrested 36 year old JASON ROBERT PATNOU of Lakeview, Arkansas on a felony charge after he made a phone call to the Baxter County Detention Center saying that the jail was about to explode.

     At 10:43 AM this morning, December 1st, the Detention Center received a phone call from a man who said, "You need to release all the prisoners".  The jailer who answered the phone asked the caller why, and the caller replied "because the place is about to explode".  When asked to repeat, the man said "have fun with that" and then hung up the phone. 

     Caller ID provided jail staff with the phone number the call had come from.  A cross-reference with the jail's records management system matched the number with a number that JASON PATNOU had provided when he had been booked into the jail on March 28, 2019.  Jailers called the number back and received the voice mail of JASON PATNOU.  The call prompted a precautionary search of the jail to be conducted, with nothing suspicious being found.

     A Sheriff's Deputy then went to the address in the Lakeview area of JASON PATNOU that was shown in the March booking.  The deputy made contact with PATNOU, who was naked and intoxicated when he answered the door.  PATNOU'S phone had saved a record of where he had called the jail's number.  The jail then again dialed the number with the deputy present and the phone rang, verifying the correct number.

    JASON PATNOU was then arrested and taken into custody.  He was transported to the Detention Center and is being charged with:

Falsely Communicating a Terroristic Threat, a Class B Felony

     JASON PATNOU is being held in lieu of $25,000 bond, and he will appear before the Circuit Court to answer later this month.

/s/ John F. Montgomery,
Baxter County Sheriff