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Student says post to blow up cars in school parking lot was a joke, investigators say

Posted at 1:29 PM, May 31, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-01 05:55:01-04

A Palm Beach County 18-year-old has been arrested after sending a Snapchat message about explosives, according to the sheriff's office.

The posting, according to a probable cause affidavit, showed the parking lot of Olympic Heights High School with the message: "I've strapped c4 to every car in the student parking lot if you try to leave early it will detonate."

C-4 is a plastic explosive.

A name was in the upper left hand of the photo and investigators said they traced it to Jose D. Calderon of suburban Delray Beach.

He had been suspended from school so investigators went to his home and spoke with Calderon and his mother.

They said that she believed, after speaking to her son, that he thought it was funny. "Yeah, I thought it was a joke and funny," the investigator quoted the teen as saying. 

According to the affidavit, Calderon said: "I didn't think it was a big deal."

He was taken to the Palm Beach County Jail and faces a charge of written threats to kill, do bodily injury.