NYC teenager arrested for bomb scare threat of Staten Island Mall Apple Store

John Brownlee ()

NYC teenager arrested for bomb scare threat of Staten Island Mall Apple StoreShort of sexting and posting Facebook status updates illiterately quoting homonymously mangled Lady Gaga lyrics, few teen activities seem as ubiquitous as descending upon the local Apple store in one lolzoring, bubble-gum-smacking biomass and stupiding it up for everyone. Usually that stupid is pretty much confined to Photo Booth, but one New York teenager set a new record in Apple Store idiocy when he walked into the Apple Store at the Staten Island mall and typed up a terrorist threat.

According to 1010Wins, 17-year old Jason Barry walked into the store and wrote this note on one of the display Macs, signing it as a friend’s father.

I have threatened your store and all its employees with a bloody death … whoever the crew maybe working, or the innocent citizens that walk in … will be eliminated with the force of a… bomb loaded with C4, strapped to my chest.

Outside of the sheer moronism of gangly pubescent youth, Barry doesn’t seem to have had a reason for the threat. His typical toe-shuffling excuse of “thinking it was funny” is pretty weak, but as a stupid teenager up until the age of 29, I at least understand: imbecilically doing something “for laughs” and having it blow up to involve the police is practically a rite of passage for teenage males.

It’s sad in a way. I have no doubt Barry was kidding around, but he’s looking at a seven-year conviction and being on watch lists for the rest of his life. Not a great pay-off for such a lame joke: he’d have gotten a better pay-off with a simple pantsing.

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[via Macworld]

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About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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  • Mattzook

    Prosecute him as an adult. It is stupid morons like this kid that makes me, and had me support President George W Bush’s “Patriot Act” laws so that we can deal harshly with morons like this. I still do and will still vote for such laws to arrest and detain morons in an instant they appear to be a threat to security. Anything to keep our nation safe from any threats, be it real or “prank”. In this Post-911 era, we have a Zero Tolerance society when it comes to security threats.

  • David

    the guy was a complete prat! but does it really warrant a potential 7yr conviction etc? it is taking away the freedom to be stupid! is fear so absolute? mebbe a birching is more real in this circumstance…. to teach him a lesson but not destroy his potential life???

  • Mattzook

    Relax. As severe as the 7-year prison sentence sounds, IT WON’T HAPPEN because America is such a pansy nation. If this had been Russia or China or Israel, then a teenager making bomb threats would probably have been beaten up by police forces, breaking many bones in his body, and then sentenced to several years in jail.

    Yes, he was arrested.

    Yes, he was probably detained for a couple days in juvenile court/jail.

    A New York judge will likely shout at him for being a stupid kid. And then after finding out that the kid is not a legitimate terrorist suspect, the judge will just sentence him to months of community work and maybe a fine (his parents will pay) $2000 or some slap in the wrist.

  • Herman

    @ Mattzook : didn’t know fascists got to own macs, too :)

  • Britt Spade

    I wish I was a judge. The sentence would be: Community service (cleaning public toilet bowls in particular) in the form of 10 hour workdays on every Saturday and Sunday for the next three years, and complete payback of the entire cost of all the police, investigators, etc., who were involved. The repayment for investigative costs cannot be paid for by the parents (I’m so sick and tired of lamebrain parents bailing out their irresponsible children who will never learn because of always getting bailed out), but must be garnished from any future wages earned by this idiot.

    Additionally, unscheduled drug tests would be required weekly (paid for by the idiot), and every or any time any drug is found in his bloodstream, 100 extra hours are added to his sentence.

    To David: there is no “freedom” to be stupid, since I was a kid, 7-years-old has always been considered the age of reasoning—knowing right from wrong—and when you were wrong, you got punished, and it’s time that the idiots of the world start paying for all the anguish, interference, inconvenience, and irritation, etc., that their exceedingly dumb decisions cause for the rest of the world.

  • JustaGuy

    I have no sympathy for this. If he wanted to be “funny” there is hundreds of stupid and immature things he could have typed out.

    I think he should be made an example of. Perhaps it’s a sign of me growing older but I really have no patience for the attitudes of today’s youth.

  • Mattzook

    <>

    Yup! Me and Rush Limbaugh. Mac lovers. Adolf would have loved Apple products too, since Apple sells American-engineered products that rival the excellence of German engineering and quality craftsmanship.

    Benito Mussolini would likely have been a Microsoft/Windows fan, tho.

  • anony-mouse

    +1 for Britt Spade, i’m all for method to make these kids learn that pranks like this is just going to make things inconvenient for everyone.

    I’m thinking is 7yrs enough to change this kid, is the news of 7yrs enough to change the other stupid kids whom are reading this and think they can get away the next time?

  • David

    Sorry britt? I live in the UK 9/11 didn’t happen here & therefore I do not understand this fear culture. I have had cancer & lost & arm & a lung & I have just had heart failure & pneumonia but i am not in fear! I do understand punishment & the birch is an alternative to dissuade others! but how did his exceedingly dumb decisions cause for the rest of the world.?

  • porkchop1234

    To bad this kid is American and not Canadian. I say send him to Afghanistan where enough Canadian soldiers have been killed by real terrorist bombers. Maybe if he saw the carnage and suffering real bombs do he wouldn’t be such a dumb ass and think such a stupid stunt would be funny. The modern day teenager needs a hard dose of reality. If the parents aren’t bailing their screw up teens out then their sitting at home with their heads up their ass while little Johnny/Jane are out at all hours of the night doing God knows what. Its quite a sickening situation after awhile.