Jeff Stanton | Daily News Employees and patrons stand and wait outside the LaGrange Walmart Monday afternoon after police received a suspcious call about a problem inside the store. Persons waiting outside speculated it was a bomb threat as LaGrange police and members of the Troup County Sheriff's office K9 unit arrived with dog in tow to search the premises

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Jeff Stanton | Daily News Employees and patrons stand and wait outside the LaGrange Walmart Monday afternoon after police received a suspcious call about a problem inside the store. Persons waiting outside speculated it was a bomb threat as LaGrange police and members of the Troup County Sheriff's office K9 unit arrived with dog in tow to search the premises

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Jeff Stanton | Daily News LaGrange police guard one of the front entrances at Walmart on Monday after a phone call was received by 911 dispatchers regarding an unknown problem inside the building. Handlers and K9 units arrived to search the store while customers and employees were evacuated.

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Jeff Stanton | Daily News Troup County Sheriff's deputies and K9 vehicle park in front of the LaGrange Walmart Monday after police received a suspicious phone call regarding a problem inside the store.

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Jeff Stanton | Daily News LaGrange police and Troup County Sheriff's deputies stand by in front of the LaGrange Walmart on Monday afternoon. Troup County 911 dispatchers received a call regarding an unknown issue inside the store. Officers arrived with a K9 unit and searched the store while employees anc customers were evacuated to the parking lot.

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Customers shopping at Walmart on New Franklin Road were buying groceries and looking for a few good deals on Christmas gifts Monday. They ended up getting a little more than they bargained for when store personnel circulated throughout the building and evacuated everyone after police received a phone call about a bomb threat inside the facility.

According to reports, at 3:26 p.m an Officer Michael Belcher of the LaGrange Police Department was contacted by E-911 in reference to an anonymous call that there was a bomb inside of Walmart.

E-911 reported that an anonymous caller, that they believed to be a juvenile, said “There’s a bomb inside of Walmart.” followed by an explicit phrase before hanging up the phone. The call could not be traced and they had no time reference.

Belcher then arrived at Walmart and spoke with loss prevention, Mike McArdle. Once informed about the situation, McArdle contacted the store manager and the decision to evacuate the store was made. The announcement was made over the store speaker for the need to evacuate. The store management team conducted a quick check to ensure that everyone was out of the building, then helped moved the evacuees away from the building.

“We were notified by the local police department that a call came in to them,” store manager Keith Owen said while standing in the parking lot. “For precautionary reasons, we’ve evacuated the store and let them check some things out. We moved fast and haven’t really had a chance to find out the full scope of what was on the call or whatever.”

More officers arrived at the scene to assist with the crowd outside the store. Troup County Sheriff’s Office, Muscogee County and Phenix City, Ala., officers arrived with their K-9 to assist with the search of the building.

No explosives were found and the store was reopened.

McArdle had noted that the Walmart in Austell had received a similar call months ago, that was traced back to a location in Dallas.

Customers and employees could be seen milling about, chatting and exchanging ideas on the possible cause for the investigation, but nobody seemed to have a clear idea of what was going on.