December 10, 2007 -- A boneheaded prank backfired on a pair of teenage cyberspace cadets who sent President Bush a death threat from a classmate's computer at an Upper West Side high school. Federal agents quickly traced the message back to the freshmen duo, both 14, and the pair wound up getting hauled off in handcuffs.
The unidentified techno-twits were given the scare of a lifetime, along with a suspension, after the incident last week. They were later freed without being charged. They performed their mischief when an unsuspecting classmate left his computer station to use the bathroom, and they darted over to his machine and punched up the Department of Homeland Security's Web site. Then they sent a prank e- mail from the classmate's computer threatening to kill the president, said the student source.
Little did they know that Homeland Security's inves tigative engine had already kicked into overdrive. Within three hours, plainclothes agents stormed the school, tracking the menacing missive to the computer lab. An hour later, they arrived at the computer in question and quickly netted the perpetrators.As the school day was coming to a close, the pranksters were led away in handcuffs - though mostly out of eyesight from their classmates.It was unclear how long they stayed in federal custody, but they were cut loose because "there wasn't enough for an arrest," said a Secret Service source.
A student at the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in Manhattan, for telling a school magazine he wanted to shoot Bush to become "a national hero."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102007/ne … _77764.htm
The unidentified techno-twits were given the scare of a lifetime, along with a suspension, after the incident last week. They were later freed without being charged. They performed their mischief when an unsuspecting classmate left his computer station to use the bathroom, and they darted over to his machine and punched up the Department of Homeland Security's Web site. Then they sent a prank e- mail from the classmate's computer threatening to kill the president, said the student source.
Little did they know that Homeland Security's inves tigative engine had already kicked into overdrive. Within three hours, plainclothes agents stormed the school, tracking the menacing missive to the computer lab. An hour later, they arrived at the computer in question and quickly netted the perpetrators.As the school day was coming to a close, the pranksters were led away in handcuffs - though mostly out of eyesight from their classmates.It was unclear how long they stayed in federal custody, but they were cut loose because "there wasn't enough for an arrest," said a Secret Service source.
A student at the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in Manhattan, for telling a school magazine he wanted to shoot Bush to become "a national hero."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102007/ne … _77764.htm
