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Florida boy, 14, enlists German friend to call in bomb threat because he didn't want to go to school: police

By Dani Medina
Published  October 6, 2023 8:27am EDT
Ocala
FOX 35 Orlando

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OCALA, Fla. - A 14-year-old student was arrested for allegedly asking his friend in Germany to call in a fake bomb threat at an Ocala high school, police said. 

The boy was arrested for criminal solicitation of a threat to discharge a destructive device. 

The bomb threat was reported Aug. 25 at Trinity Catholic School, according to the Ocala Police Department. An officer responded to the school after an unknown caller left a voicemail saying a bomb was in a specific room and it would explode. Detectives believed someone who attended the school may have been responsible for the threat since they knew unique details about the school. The call was eventually traced back to Germany, police said. 

The FBI helped out in this case and was able to ID the phone's owner in Germany. It turns out the woman had a teenage son, who admitted to making the fake bomb threat call, police said. He told officials he was "instigated to do so by a high school student who attended the school," the Ocala Police Department said. 

The boy in Germany only knew the Trinity Catholic School student by his nickname, but police were still able to track him down. That's when the student told police he had an online friend in Germany. 

Police got access to messages between the Ocala student and his German friend, which confirmed the student's involvement on the day of the bomb threat. 

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The boy in Germany said the boy told him he "did not feel like going to school that day and told him to call the school and make a bomb threat," police said. 

"We want to remind students and parents that we take threats to our schools very seriously and we will not hesitate to take action against those who seek to cause harm or create panic in our community.," the Ocala Police Department said in a statement. "Threats like this, even as a joke, are never acceptable. We encourage parents to have conversations with their children about the importance of safety in our schools and to report any concerns or suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately."