Nearly 30 Planet Fitness locations have received bomb threats since a customer was banned for raising concerns about a transgender gym-goer shaving in the women’s locker room, according to an investigation.
Police have received reports of such bomb hoaxes in at least 28 gyms in 11 states, from Connecticut through Alaska, according to Media Matters.
Although no bombs were ever found, the threats have forced dozens of businesses to evacuate.
The first Planet Fitness location known to be targeted was the one in Fairbanks, Alaska, where Patricia Silva, 67, was suspended for taking a photo of someone shaving in the women’s locker room.
Silva also shared her horror in a video posted on March 13, saying she raised the alarm because she felt unsafe at seeing a transgender person “with a penis” near a girl who “could have been 12 years old . . . in a towel kind of freaked out that there’s a man shaving in her locker room.”
The gym franchise said in the aftermath that its policy allows members to use the facilities that “best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity” — and claimed that Silva violated its policy of taking photos of individuals in the locker rooms, resulting in her suspension.
Just two days later, multiple businesses received an email stating that bombs were placed inside the Planet Fitness, KTVF reports.
The email stated there was an intention to blow up the building, but police did not find anything and soon ruled the threat to be “bogus.”
As outrage spread online, dozens more Planet Fitness locations were also targeted with fake threats.
They include at least four in Rhode Island, four in Mississippi, six in Michigan, three in Alabama, three in Florida, one in Virginia, one in Maryland and another in Kansas, according to Media Matters.
Three gyms in Connecticut also received bomb threats — in Norwich, East Haven and Hamden, the Hartford Courant reports.
Gym-goers said they have been left frustrated by the unnecessary evacuations.
“I think it’s stupid,” Noah Branch told Action News Jacksonville in Florida.
“If you have opinions about it, you should not come out and threaten other people’s lives,” he said, noting he spoke to some underage gym-goers whose parents have expressed concerns about them going back to the gym.
But Branch said he is still planning to attend the so-called “Judgment Free Zone,” calling it a “great place” to work out.
“It’s not going to hinder us,” he said of him and his girlfriend.
