Police officers block off a section of the Wildwood Boardwalk while investigating the bomb scare. (Facebook photo courtesy of Liam Cherkasky of “Wildwood Past & Present”)
A section of the Wildwood Boardwalk was closed Friday afternoon while police investigated a bomb threat reportedly made at a pizzeria that has faced an online furor for allegedly displaying Nazi imagery.
Wildwood police were not immediately available for comment. City spokeswoman Lisa Fagan said in a text shortly before 6 p.m. that the Boardwalk had reopened.
“Everything is clear and open, and it’s under investigation,” said Fagan, who did not have any other details.
A post by Liam Cherkasky of the Facebook page “Wildwood Past & Present” said that the Boardwalk was closed between Oak and Cedar avenues after “someone allegedly threatened to bomb Franconi’s due to politically motivated stickers in their restaurant.”
Cherkasky included a photo with his post showing police tape and officers blocking off a section of the Boardwalk while the bomb scare was being investigated.
A person at Franconi’s Pizza who identified himself only as “Tony” said he was not sure whether the pizzeria was the target of the bomb threat or whether it was another Boardwalk business.
He declined to comment on whether he thought the bomb scare was connected with recent complaints directed at Franconi’s over alleged Nazi symbols at the pizzeria.
“We’re really busy,” he said before hanging up the phone.
Franconi's Pizza has been facing an online uproar over its alleged display of symbols associated with the Nazis. (Courtesy of Franconi's Pizza Facebook page)Franconi’s has been hit with an onsalught of negative reviews on Google and Yelp and calls for a boycott after it allegedly had stickers associated with the Nazis in World War II.
A Reddit user’s post over the weekend reportedly showed the Nazi symbols displayed on the kitchen wall at Franconi’s, according to media reports.
The symbols reportedly are popular among neo-Nazi and white supremacy groups.
In the wake of the controversy, the alleged Nazi symbols have since been removed from the wall at Franconi’s, according to media reports.
The controversy involving Franconi’s prompted Yelp to temporarily stop accepting reviews of the pizzeria amid a torrent of complaints about the stickers.
“This business recently received increased public attention resulting in an influx of people posting their views to this page, so we have temporarily disabled the ability to post here as we work to investigate the content,” Yelp said in a statement.
“While racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in any form, all reviews on Yelp must reflect an actual first-hand consumer experience (even if that means disabling the ability for users to express points of view we might agree with),” the statement added.
