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12.17.2013

Harvard student charged in bomb threat hoax

Sophomore Eldo Kim really really really did not want to take his government final



Asian behaving badly... Harvard fake bomb threat edition! COME ON. It had to be an Asian guy. At Harvard University, a student has been arrested for phoning in a fake bomb threat in order to get out of final exams.

Harvard Sophomore Charged in Bomb Threat

20-year-old Eldo Kim, a Harvard sophomore, was charged in connection with an unfounded bomb threat against several campus buildings in an idiotic attempt to avoid a final exam scheduled to be held on Monday.

The final he was apparently trying to bomb scare his way out of? Government 1368: The Politics of American Education, scheduled for 9:00am in Emerson -- one of four buildings named as "targets" in an anonymous email to the Harvard University Police Department, university officials, and the president of the Harvard Crimson.

From the affidavit of an FBI assigned to the case:

On December 16, 2013, at approximately 8:30 a.m., the Harvard University Police Department, two officials of Harvard University, and the president of the Harvard Crimson, the university’s daily student newspaper, received identical e-mail messages bearing a "subject" line that read "bombs placed around campus." Each of the e-mail messages read as follows:

shrapnel bombs placed in:

science center
sever hall
emerson hall
thayer hall

2/4. guess correctly.

be quick for they will go off soon


The Science Center, Sever Hall, Emerson Hall, and Thayer Hall are buildings on Harvard University’s main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In response to the e-mail messages, the Harvard University Police Department immediately notified the FBI. The FBI immediately began an investigation on the Harvard University campus, in coordination with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the United States Secret Service; the Harvard University Police Department; the Cambridge Police Department; the Boston Police Department; and the Massachusetts State Police. Dozens of law enforcement officers, along with numerous other first responders, such as firefighters of the Cambridge Fire Department, immediately went to the vicinity of the buildings specified in the e-mail messages.

Each of the four buildings was immediately evacuated. Over the course of the next several hours, bomb technicians and hazmat officers conducted thorough sweeps of each of the four buildings. Law enforcement personnel ultimately concluded that no explosive devices had been placed in any of the four buildings.
Kim took several steps to hide the origin of the emails, using Guerilla Mail to create an a temporary anonymous email address and TOR, an application that generates random anonymous IP address. But authorities were able to determine that Kim had accessed TOR on the Harvard network before sending the email. Not so smart.

When I first heard about a bomb threat at Harvard, I immediately assumed that it might be a student trying to get out of finals. Sadly, this is not even close to the first time it's happened. If only Eldo had directed the energy it took to concoct this ridiculous scheme into some actual studying.

Now he's looking at five years in prison, three years of suspended release, and a $250,000 fine.

More here: Harvard student Eldo Kim charged in final-exam bomb hoax