Yestercon was held at the Carson Center in, Carson, CA today. This was a retro con that was supposed to “keep your childhood rad” instead all it did was get adrenaline going as they quietly removed people from the facility due to a bomb threat that was received around 2:30 PST.
When we called the center we received no answer, the phone was not even changed over to an answering service or machine as if the staff has left in a hurry.
This is an ongoing event, so be sure to check in frequently to see what updates we have;
Update: 7:42 CST
After speaking with several people that were on site, the evacuation went smoothly and convention staff kept their heads during the whole event. Convention and convention centers have procedures for these events, but they rarely have to enact them. When it’s an event such as this it is with volunteer staff that frequently has only quick training. I applaud the organizers.
“.. we honestly thought it was part of the show because the cosplay contest had just ended and the joker was egging on Batman lol. So when the person on the microphone asked everyone to evacuate in an orderly fashion we didn’t think it was serious at first until he said “this is not a joke, please evacuate the building per sheriffs”. Everyone slowly started walking out in confusion and I honestly still don’t know what happened. Sheriffs also didn’t mention anything as we were walking out. I was with my wife and two kids.”
Update: 8:44 CST
We now have updates from the site that they have let people return to the center to retrieve their stuff. So the bomb scare is over and seems to have been a false alarm.
“CelebWorx brought Keith Coogan and Greg Berg to Yestercon. At approximately 3:08, onsite staffers from the Carson civic center went through the celebrity aisle to calmly alert us to leave the facility immediately. We had no time to grab anything. When we reached the parking lot, the Carson police department asked us to get in our cars and drive away as far as possible. The show until then was going wonderfully with a healthy crowd. It was the most attended Yestercon in the past three years. We returned two hours later to retrieve our abandoned items.” – Nery Lemus – Vice President – CelebWorx
Nery then went on to provide me the following;
“After speaking to a Yestercon official, the Bomb Threat was a result of a robotic phone call singling out the name Yestercon as the target of the threat.”
