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Canadian arrested for bomb threats across North America

by on12 May 2014



How a 16 year old used social media to get attention

A 16-year-old bloke from Ottawa, Canada has been arrested for allegedly making at least 30 fraudulent calls to emergency services across North America over the past few months. Not only was he making phony bomb threats, but he was also trying his hand at “swatting” where a hoaxer spoofs a call about a hostage situation or other violent crime in progress in the hopes of tricking cops into breaking down the door and shooting everyone.

His biggest mistakes appears to have been to try and show his mighty skills to the security writer Brian Krebs. Fortunately for Krebs he had been hit by such a scam before and the local coppers knew to give him a ring before breaking down the door.

The kid however didn’t know that and started bragging on Twitter: “You have 5 hostages? And you will kill 1 hostage every 6 times and the police have 25 minutes to get you $100k in clear plastic.” Another message read: “Good morning! Just dispatched a swat team to your house, they didn’t even call you this time, hahaha.”

Of course targeting an investigative reporter is probably not the most intelligent thing, the kid who had the handle @ProbablyOnion thought he was so good at it he was offering his services as a swatter. Pastebin outted @ProbablyOnion as a 19-year-old Curtis Gervais from Ontario. @ProbablyOnion laughed it off but didn’t deny the accuracy of the information, except to tweet that the document got his age wrong. He taunted the local police to arrest him, much to his surprise they actually did.

According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, the 16-year-old faces 60 charges, including creating fear by making bomb threats. Ottawa police also are investigating whether any alleged hoax calls diverted responders away from real emergencies.

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