OCALA, Fla. – A Florida teen was arrested on Wednesday after a false bomb threat was made at Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala, according to the police department.
In a release, police said that the bomb threat happened on Aug. 25, with the caller claiming that the bomb was left in a specific room and would explode.
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The caller’s phone number was traced back to Germany, though because the caller knew unique details about the school, investigators believed a student at the school might have been involved, the release shows.
After police received help from the FBI, the caller was eventually determined to be a teenage boy living in Germany, investigators said.
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According to detectives, that teen explained to authorities that he had been instigated to make the threat by a student at the high school because “he did not feel like going to school that day.” However, he only knew the student’s nickname.
Detectives said they were able to use the nickname to identify the Florida student as a 14-year-old boy who attended the school. The release says that messages between that student and the German teen were uncovered that served as evidence of the plot.
The 14-year-old was arrested and faces a charge of soliciting a threat to discharge a destructive device.
“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 police department wrote on Thursday. “Threats like this, even as a joke, are never acceptable.”
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