Harvard Student Arrested For Bomb Threat

Leave it to a Harvard student to find the most complicated way possible to escape a final exam. Sophomore psychology student Eldo Kim, 20, has admitted to the FBI that he faked the bomb threat Monday morning that led to the evacuation of several campus buildings ... in order to get out of his exam. Kim was arrested and held overnight on federal bomb hoax charges.

Around 8:30 Monday morning, Kim anonymously emailed two Harvard officials, campus police, and the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, to tell them that there were "shrapnel bombs" ready to go off soon in two of four buildings he mentioned.

“Shrapnel bombs placed in science center, sever hall, emerson hall, thayer hall, 2/4," Kim allegedly wrote. "Guess correctly. Be quick for they will go off soon.” He later admitted to adding the qualifier 'shrapnel' to make the threat seem more dangerous. Like you do.

The four buildings the bombs were said to have been in were all evacuated shortly thereafter, postponing Harvard's 9 a.m. exams — including Kim's. He told investigators he knew his plan had succeeded when he heard the alarms go off. His threats drew officials from three U.S. federal agencies, including the Secret Service, and four police departments.

Police later figured out that Kim had used the Harvard WiFi to create the temporary IP address and email address through which he sent the messages. Later that night, police interviewed him in his dorm room.

Federal bomb hoax charges carry a five-year maximum sentence, $250,000 in fines, and three years' probation.

“I don’t know if he deserves five years in prison, but it was definitely stupid,” Harvard International Review co-editor-in-chief Mathilde Montpetit, who had briefly worked with Kim before he resigned from the staff, said.

Image: weknowmemes