Trashy Love Triangle Leads To Revenge Airplane Bomb Hoax
As Neil Sedaka once noted, breaking up is hard to do—but what he left out is that having your ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend call an airport to say you are carrying a bomb on you is EVEN HARDER. That's basically what happened to Christopher Shell, who turned 29 on Thursday, the same day his ex's new boyfriend sought to "avenge" her honor by calling in a bomb hoax.
Shell was on a U.S. Airways flight bound from Philadelphia to Dallas when all the commotion happened. Well, at first things were okay: "I'm not going to lie, I feel Blessed on of my new neighbors works Security at PHL airport, walked me right in str8 though security with a breeze, and also got us a couple free fruits!" he wrote on Facebook. But after the flight took off, Kenneth W. Smith Jr. allegedly called police at the Philadelphia airport to report that Shell was carrying a liquid explosive.
Once it landed, Shell was taken off the plane at gunpoint by authorities. “He was obviously very alarmed as I would be if, if heavily armed police officers entered a plane to take me off. He was certainly stunned,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan. During their interrogation, Shell said that this “nasty prank" grew out of a feud involving himself, his ex, and her new boyfriend "Kenny." Shell had recently traded "hostile messages" on his cellphone with his ex-girlfriend about the situation, according to the affidavit.
When Smith was questioned, he admitted making the call from a payphone to "avenge" the ex, because he claimed Shell had posted a compromising picture of her on Facebook (CBS reports Smith became enraged "when Shell claimed he had slept with his old girlfriend again"
. Smith has since been charged with conveying false information that interfered with aviation and using an instrument of commerce (the payphone) to do so.
Not that things went smoothly for Shell the rest of his birthday: after he was cleared in Philadelphia, he was allowed to fly to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. And upon arrival there, he was swiftly arrested for outstanding warrants, including a 2006 conviction for possession of a controlled substance. But at least he bounced back enough to make one more Facebook wall post: "If u have questions or want an interview with me, it will cost u $$$$ until then. Sry. Message me your offers as I'll go with the most $$$!"
http://gothamist.com/2012/09/07/trashy_love_triangle_leads_to_airpl.php
