Illinois woman sentenced for bomb hoax that shut down Lansing bus station

An Illinois woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for phoning in a false bomb threat that disrupted the Capital Area Transportation Authority in Lansing, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan announced. Nefateria Denise Ferguson, 33, of Peoria, Illinois, also received four months of home confinement and a $350 fine after pleading guilty to making an interstate bomb hoax.

Ferguson called a CATA operator at about 8:10 a.m. on April 22, 2025, and said there was a bomb at the bus station. Officials rerouted buses away from downtown Lansing, closed nearby streets and evacuated more than 200 staff, drivers and patrons from CATA's offices and main terminal. Lansing police, including a bomb-sniffing dog, searched the site and found no explosive; the station remained shut for about an hour during the morning rush.

When detectives first called Ferguson, she gave a false name and denied involvement, according to federal prosecutors. FBI agents later linked her to the call through records, and she admitted making the threat as a "prank," telling investigators she was responding to a group text in which a CATA employee had jokingly asked someone to call in a bomb threat so she could leave work. That employee has since been fired.

FBI Detroit Field Office special agent in charge Jennifer Runyan said the sentence reflects the seriousness of falsely reporting a threat that forces law enforcement to respond to a nonexistent danger.

Read the full story at WILX.