VIPD Shoots Down WhatsApp Hoax Voice Mail Threats Circulating In Territory

FREDERIKSTED — The Virgin Islands Police Department has responded to the WhatsApp voice message circulating in the territory falsely claiming that there will be a threat to the USVI in the coming months.

“The FBI has revealed no evidence to substantiate that threat or to support any other terrorist threats to the territory,” VIPD spokesman Glen Dratte said today.

The Virgin Islands Police Department continues to work with their Federal Law Enforcement Partners and advising the community that “hoax threats” are not a joke and “they have devastating consequences to both the public and the perpetrators,” Dratte said.

Issuing this type of text over social media, via text message, or through email is a federal crime, he added.

John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.