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Somebody trying to extort money from Harvard used a Craigslist ad to find a patsy to deliver explosives in a threatening package to campus last month, FBI says

By adamg on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 5:00pm


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Comments

By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 6:08pm.

He's 54 years old, aware enough to know that maybe he shouldn't let the FBI trample him, and yet he didn't seem to understand that he was being used and that all that stuff he was assembling was kind of suspicious - and some of it was illegal in Massachusetts?

This is more than a simple "pick up this closed heavy package and leave it" situation.

Be interesting to see how this all pans out.

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By BostonDog on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 6:29pm.

Lots of people are duped into doing something illegal when they answer a well intentioned Craigslist ad. But not many people continue to play along when they are instructed to make a crude bomb and leave it in a public location.

When someone is down on their luck, $300 is enough to make them put reason aside. But apparently he had access to money via his stolen housemate's debit card.

Hopefully the truth will come out.

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By SharpWave on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 8:45pm.

But what doesn't match up is the technical ability to be able to deal with bitcoin (and make it untraceable enough to get away with it) vs. the obvious ridiculousness of a scheme where the guy would have had to have framed himself in advance as a patsy, but just in case he got caught? (I assume there's no doubt that the CL post went up *before* the Harvard incident.) In any case this whole thing seems like good fodder for a law and order episode.

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By SharpWave on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 6:27pm.

I don't care how desperate you are, between all the red flags and all the opportunities to walk away (really, right up to the second he left the toolbox), how does anyone go through with this, for $300? And then he talked to the cops without a lawyer? Just defies comprehension.

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By Tim Mc. on Wed, 05/03/2023 - 7:11am.

and it sounds like this would have been before he placed the bag.

(The rest of the timeline isn't totally clear, but it sounds like the threat was called in almost immediately after the bag was placed.)

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By Jess Idres on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 6:41pm.

…this sounds more and more fishy more this guy spoke. Why do I feel like this guy set up a Craigslist ad as an alibi, and the ‘business phone’ has evidence of it?

Now yeah, he doesn’t have to turn over his phone without a warrant, but the fact that it seems he willingly paid extra for the bag, said the mysterious customer waited until he was in Worcester to ghost with vague comments… Dude, easiest way to prove it wasn’t you is to show them numbers and messages.

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By CopleyScott17 on Wed, 05/03/2023 - 3:08am.

Doesn't add up.

Anyway, this will make a great podcast some day.

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