Fence jumper prompts White House lockdown

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 18, 2007

A man from Miami led the White House to a security lockdown on Friday when he jumped the fence surrounding the president's mansion with a package making bomb threats.

Catalino Lucas Diaz, 66, was nabbed by the Secret Service on the lawn shortly after 11:00 a.m. and charged with unlawful entry, threatening with a bomb and throwing a missile.

The incident closed the area around the White House in Washington, D.C., for more than three hours. Secret Service officials used a water cannon to destroy the package, which contained no dangerous materials -- a book and a tape recorder, according to the Associated Press.

"We perceived everything that comes over the fence as a serious threat," said Kim Bruce, spokesperson for the Secret Service.

Lucas Diaz has a conviction in Florida for attempted murder. He was sentenced in 1995 and released in 2001, court records show.