Teen to be tried in bomb threats - Local & State - News & Observer

Teen to be tried in bomb threats - Local & State - News & Observer

Federal prosecutors say a teenager from Oxford is a celebrity in an online prankster world in which conspirators, for nominal fees, make bomb threats to high schools, universities, federal offices and other places and then broadcast the results live to a select audience.

In indictments issued this week by a federal grand jury in Indiana, prosecutors accuse Ashton Lundeby, 16, of making or helping make bomb threats in at least a dozen states from his home computer since last year. In some cases, prosecutors say, Lundeby and unnamed co-conspirators would collect fees to lodge bomb threats at high schools and middle schools with the goal of closing school for the day.


Federal prosecutors call it "Swatting," the act of making a false emergency report that frequently prompts responses from special weapons and tactics, or SWAT, teams. They say Lundeby and the co-conspirators used pseudonyms and elaborate computer gaming techniques to disguise their voices and identities, then transmit threats and watch live through video surveillance and webcams as law enforcement teams responded.



Lundeby, a homeschooled boy arrested March 5 in his Oxford home and taken to Indiana, is being tried as an adult in federal court, though under federal law he is considered a juvenile. He is scheduled to go before a federal magistrate in Indiana today.

Efforts to reach his lawyers were unsuccessful Thursday.

His mother, Annette Lundeby, could not be reached for comment this week. In previous interviews she has repeatedly said prosecutors are going after the wrong person, that her son is a victim of misguided prosecutors and was set up by other Internet pranksters.

According to the indictments, Lundeby is accused of making a bomb threat to Purdue University on Feb. 15 and to Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne on Jan. 31. He also is accused of conspiring to make bomb threats and conveying false information over the Internet and telephone lines from mid-2008 to March 6.

The indictments describe Lundeby as a major figure in an Internet prankster world in which elaborate hoaxes were broadcast to as many as 300 viewers.

On July 18, 2008, according to the indictments, Lundeby opened a PayPal account with an online bank. Over the ensuing months, investigators say many people made "donations" or payments, often $5 or more, for the opportunity to view or participate in prank calls.

Prosecutors say Lundeby went by the name of Tyrone on the Internet. Investigators say some of the pranks were threatening and illegal.

The indictments allege that on March 4, Lundeby and co-conspirators made bomb threats to middle and high schools in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kansas and Georgia with the goal of closing them for the day.

The bomb threats to universities include one to UNC-Chapel Hill on Feb. 15. Students were cleared that Sunday night from several buildings, including the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, a hub of activity, while emergency workers conducted a search.

A webcam, according to the indictments, broadcast the activity for an Internet audience.

No tie to Patriot Act

Bloggers and others latched on to Lundeby's case in May after Annette Lundeby tried to rally support for him, saying he had been detained as a domestic terrorist under the USA Patriot Act.

At that time, prosecutors had not yet won support from a federal judge to try the teen in adult court and documents about his case were sealed from public scrutiny, as federal law allows. But Indiana prosecutors issued a statement to dispel the idea that Lundeby's case had anything to do with the Patriot Act. They acknowledged that a teen had been accused of making bomb threats to Purdue University and detained in Indiana while awaiting court proceedings.