What started as a $1 bet between children Thursday ended with a bomb threat at the Natchez Market on John R. Junkin Drive and two arrests.

A 9-year-old boy and a 10-year-old boy were arrested by Natchez police and charged with filing a false report of placing an explosive device. The charge is a felony, and the youths’ cases will be handled in Adams County Youth Court.

Natchez Police Chief Willie Huff said the boys were playing on the phone when one of them bet the other $1 he wouldn’t call in a bomb threat.

Mike Halley was at work in the meat department at the Natchez Market when the bomb threat call came in at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

&uot;We heard laughing in the background when they called,&uot; Halley said. &uot;We cleared the building anyway.&uot;

Natchez Market customers and employees stood in the parking lot outside of the store as police and sheriff’s deputies searched the building.

No bomb was found after a nearly 35-minute search.

Adams County Youth Court Judge John Hudson must decide what to do with the two children, who were released to their parents on Thursday.

Before the court can make a decision it must weigh every circumstance of the situation, Hudson said

The circumstances the court will review not only include the crime but also the supervision of the children and whether they committed the crime.

The age of the children does not make Hudson’s job easy, though.

&uot;The younger the child the more difficult the process,&uot; Hudson said.

When children are about 13-years old they generally understand whether what they did was a criminal action or not, Hudson said.

Children younger than 13-years old generally do not understand the criminality of their actions.

&uot;We deal with every situation as it exists – whether it was a prank or not,&uot; Hudson said. &uot;The 9- and 10-year-olds are in a different world because the don’t have the grasp of the criminality of their actions.&uot;

Also, children between the ages of 7- and 10-years-old cannot be found delinquent, but the court can decide the child needs more supervision. Being found delinquent means the child can be sent to a special school or other form of detention in the youth services system.