CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A Macomb County man who got agents to show up at his house because he tweeted a bomb threat directly at the FBI just to “test” it then proceeded to taunt the bureau in a series of profanity- and emoji-laced tweets, officials said.
Bomb threat
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Joseph Todd Kowalczyk, a 19- or 20-year-old man from Clinton Township, tagged the FBI in a tweet Saturday evening, according to authorities.
The tweet said, “@FBI (you know) what I’m done joking this is a serious threat I have 10 bombs ready to go off (right now) in my basement with 5 guns that are illegal own come get me you guys have till 8 before I make this city in my own little hell #forwaco (emoji)."
It was sent at 7:28 p.m. by the Twitter handle “@JT616k.”
By tagging the official FBI account, Kowalczyk knew he was sending his message directly, agents said.
“The FBI considered this threat imminent and credible under the belief that death or serious physical injury would occur without law enforcement intervention,” court records state.
Officials confront Kowalczyk
The tweet eventually reached the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center, which identified Kowalczyk as the owner of the cellphone that tweeted the threat, according to officials.
Kowalczyk was traced to a home on South Keystone Court in Clinton Township. Officers from the Clinton Township Police Department and FBI agents went to his home Monday morning and confronted him about the post, they said.
When they showed him the post, Kowalczyk confirmed he was the one who tweeted it, police said. Kowalczyk told them he was “testing the government” and that the FBI’s response time concerned him.
He also said he didn’t own any weapons or intend to carry out actual violence, officials said. Kowalczyk told authorities he wouldn’t post anything further, according to court records.
Additional tweets
Kowalczyk returned to Twitter that very morning, though, firing off a new tweet at 11:56 a.m.
WARNING: These tweets have some extremely strong and offensive language that many will find disturbing.
“If someone is making death threats doesn’t matter how bad it is a cop should still show up to the house n check everything the the FBI took 15 hours!!!! N didn’t send a cop to check up on the house that’s r-------,” Kowalczyk tweeted.
Later that day, Kowalczyk tweeted, “(three laughing emojis) man I find it so funny how I wasted the FBI time.”
At 1:37 p.m. Monday, Kowalczyk tweeted, “(By the way) since I know the FBI is now watching my Twitter post they are forced to read my post (laughing emoji) (because) im now being investigated by the FBI (don’t regret it I want to be investigated so I can f--- with them) (laughing emoji) they have to read every single one just to make sure im not up to anything.”
Four minutes later, Kowalczyk tweeted, “Just to be clear my plan wasn’t to f--- with fbi at 1st but now that (I know) that they are observing me I’m 100% gonna f--- with them (laughing emoji) my plan was to see if the FBI would show up to a death threat in matter of time (which they didn’t [laughing emoji]) n since they didn’t I’m gonna f--- with them.”
The FBI issued a criminal complaint accusing Kowalczyk of transmitting a threat to injure.