Dutch Teen Arrested for Tweeting a Terror Threat At American Airlines
Over the weekend, a 14-year-old girl caused quite the stir after tweeting an ill-advised terror threat to American Airlines, who promptly reported her to authorities.
.Over the weekend, a 14-year-old girl caused quite the stir after tweeting an ill-advised terror threat to American Airlines, who promptly reported her to authorities. After spending the weekend freaking out online, gaining thousands of new followers, and basically become an unintentional Internet sensation, the girl was arrested on Monday.
The girl, known only as "Sarah," or @QueenDemetriax_ on Twitter, tweeted the threat on Sunday morning and got an unexpectedly harsh response:
The American Air threat was apparently very real, as Dutch police arrested a fourteen-year-old girl Monday in her home in Rotterdam, as confirmed by police to Business Insider. However, the arrest was apparently made after an independent investigation by Dutch police, and not at the prompting of Twitter, the FBI, or American Airlines. Charges are not yet known.
Sarah promptly started straight freaking on her (since suspended) Twitter account. It looked exactly what you would imagine a teen realizing how stupid her actions were, in real time, over social media. It was kind of glorious:
The Internet obviously pounced on the hilarious exchange, and interest in Sarah's account skyrocketed. She gained over 20,000 followers over the weekend, before her account was suspended. But with instant online fame comes crippling real-life terror. Sarah had no idea whether American Airlines had actually forwarded her account to the authorities. Before her arrest, and before anyone could tell her shutting up is her best possible course of action, she live-tweeted the highs and lows of her infamy. "I'm not gonna tell my parents, they'll tell me to delete my acc omg that would be the end of my life," she said at one point. "Fuck this is so bad," she added later. At one point her neighbor knocked on her front door and she thought she was being arrested.
Joke's on her, because that came later. Don't tweet terrorist threats to anyone, especially airlines. It's generally a bad idea.