Waukegan man accused of hacking radios to issue Gurnee Mills bomb threat

A Waukegan man with a criminal history of tapping into and taking control of others' electronic communication devices faces new charges alleging he caused a false bomb threat at Gurnee Mills shopping center Jan. 29, authorities said.

Raymond Kelly, 25, of the 4800 block of Eastwood Drive, could be sentenced to as many as five years in prison if convicted of issuing a false bomb or gas alarm, Lake County state's attorney spokeswoman Cynthia Vargas said Thursday.

Kelly also is charged with two counts of tampering with a secure communication that involved fire and life systems. If found guilty of those charges, he could spend up to three years in prison, Vargas said.

He remains held in Lake County jail on $25,000 bail, Vargas said.

Vargas said Kelly tapped into a radio system used by security officers at the Gurnee mall to communicate the bomb threat. Authorities were able to trace the hijacked radio signal back to Kelly's address, where various portable radios, a laptop and an antenna were located, Vargas said.

Gurnee police Cmdr. Willie Meyer said Kelly broke into the radio frequency and threatened to detonate a bomb planted near the Macy's department store. The threat was determined to be a hoax, he said.

Meyer said Kelly may have tapped into the radio signal at Gurnee Mills more than 60 times since 2012. It is believed Kelly would transmit racial slurs over the signal or simply interfere with radio transmissions, Meyer said.

"It was troublesome because we would have to investigate what he would say until we deemed there was no threat," he said.

The investigation remains open and additional charges are possible, Meyer added.

Kelly pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge for tampering with the communication devices used by officers at the Lake County jail. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, court records show.

Authorities said Kelly was able to reprogram frequencies on the jail radios so he could transmit racial slurs over a two-day span in November 2013.