COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A volunteer firefighter in South Carolina has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for sending messages about a fake bomb threat to try to get his station called in the event of a real emergency.

U.S. Attorney Beth Drake says 21-year-old Karry Max Taylor was sentenced Wednesday. He was also ordered to pay about $1,500 in restitution to cover law enforcement costs.

At a guilty plea hearing in January, Taylor admitted sending text messages a year earlier to random numbers saying there was a bomb at Columbia’s Dorn VA Medical Center.

Taylor told authorities he sent the fake messages because he was a volunteer firefighter in Columbia and hoped his station would be called for a real emergency while other crews were tied up at the VA hospital.

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