A 19-year-old Bloomington man is facing a felony charge after police say he threatened to bomb an Applebee's near College Mall in an Instagram post, forcing the restaurant to clear out customers and close roughly 90 minutes early on Sunday. Jaxon Hahn was booked into the Monroe County Jail and now faces one count of intimidation, a Level 6 felony under Indiana law.
According to Fox 59, the threat originated as an Instagram story posted from a private account with only about 50 followers, user “hahn_tilli_solo.” The post reportedly showed the interior of the Applebee's at 2894 E. 3rd Street, attached to College Mall, along with a threat to bomb the restaurant. Meta flagged the story and reported it to the FBI National Threat Operations Center, which then passed the tip to the local FBI office and Bloomington police on Sunday.
The FBI's National Threat Operations Center, based in Clarksburg, West Virginia, operates around the clock and evaluates more than 3,000 calls and electronic tips daily, including referrals from social media platforms, before flagging actionable leads to local law enforcement, according to the FBI. That pipeline is how a threat posted to a small private account moved from Meta to federal screeners to Bloomington police within hours.
Restaurant Searched, No Devices Found
Bloomington police searched the Applebee's on Sunday after the threat surfaced, but did not find any suspicious devices, per the same account from Fox 59. The restaurant had already cleared out all customers and shut its doors about 90 minutes early in response to the threat before officers arrived.
Investigators tracked Hahn to an apartment on Indiana University's campus and took him to Bloomington Police Department headquarters, the report notes. He reportedly admitted to making the post. Per court documents, Hahn said the post was stupid and that he was not serious, explaining he was hungry, tired and upset that he had not received his food in what he considered an appropriate amount of time.
What Level 6 Felony Intimidation Means
Under Indiana Code Section 35-45-2-1, intimidation is typically charged as a Class A misdemeanor, but the offense escalates to a Level 6 felony when a threat causes the evacuation of a building or structure, according to FindLaw. That is the threshold prosecutors are applying to Hahn's case, given that the restaurant emptied out and closed early because of the threat.
A Level 6 felony conviction in Indiana carries a sentence ranging from six months to two and a half years in prison, with an advisory baseline of one year and fines of up to $10,000, according to Keffer Hirschauer LLP. The consequences extend well beyond any prison time: individuals convicted of a Level 6 felony in Indiana must wait at least eight years from the date of conviction before they can petition a court for expungement, per the same source.
Case Heads to Monroe Circuit Court
The formal charge against Hahn was filed Monday in Monroe Circuit Court 9, and his initial hearing is scheduled for August 21. Monroe Circuit Court Judge Christine Talley Haseman, who has served on the bench since January 2019 after earning her law degree from Indiana University's Maurer School of Law in 1995, is assigned to preside over that hearing, according to the Indiana Daily Student. Haseman previously handled family law and protective order cases before her reelection to Division III.
The Monroe Circuit Court operates as a unified system with nine judicial divisions, all housed at the Charlotte Zietlow Justice Center in Bloomington and sharing a single administrative budget and probation department, according to Monroe County Government. It remains unclear whether bail conditions will be set at Hahn's initial hearing, and whether he is an enrolled Indiana University student, since he was tracked to a campus apartment complex — Indiana University Bloomington maintains several on-campus student housing options, including Union Street Center and Tulip Tree Apartments, near academic buildings.
Not the First Threat at College Mall
This is not the first time a bomb threat has disrupted College Mall, Bloomington's largest shopping center with more than 80 stores and restaurants that opened in 1965. In December 2011, police cleared a section of the mall for roughly two hours after an employee found a taped cylindrical object near an entrance, before an Indiana State Police bomb squad determined it was not explosive, according to WTHR.
The Hahn case also follows a similar intimidation arrest in Bloomington last December, when a 49-year-old woman was charged with Level 6 felony intimidation after allegedly calling emergency dispatch and threatening to shoot an explosive device into the Monroe County Central Emergency Dispatch Center, the Indiana Daily Student reported at the time. In that case, police located the suspect at her residence using phone records. It remains an open question whether Applebee's or College Mall management intend to pursue any civil restitution over the lost business hours from Sunday's evacuation.
