How British video game addict caused bomb panic across US
A BRITISH teenager caused mass panic in the US with a string of bomb hoaxes and death threats after becoming hooked on a violent video game, a court heard.
Gregory Sales, who was 15 at the time, thought it would be funny to cause havoc at airports, schools, universities and TV stations.
Sales, who used names including ‘Ransom the Terrorist’, also rang an FBI special agent’s home and threatened to ‘kidnap and slaughter’ his wife and two daughters if he did not pay $20,000 (£15,840).
After lowering the ransom demand, Sales warned if it was not paid: ‘Your family dies, I come to your house and slaughter everybody.’
Yesterday Sales, who is now 17, sobbed as he was sentenced to 12 months in a young offenders’ institution.
District Judge Michael Abelson told the teenager ‘this was no game’, adding: ‘You must have surely appreciated as an intelligent young man at the horror you were causing and the fear you distilled in them.’
He said Sales was ‘exceptionally lucky’ he was too young to be extradited to the US to face more serious charges.
Wirral Youth Court in Merseyside was told the offences were carried out over the internet from September 2014 to May last year, when Sales committed 12 charges of making bomb hoaxes and threats to kill.
Hannah Griffiths, prosecuting, said: ‘The actions of Gregory caused huge disruption in the USA.’
She said that, in one case, Sales told the Ottawa County Sheriff in Michigan that he was travelling to a high school armed with a bomb and a machine gun. Some 19 police patrols were sent and the 2,500 students were locked down for an hour.
Miss Griffiths added: ‘That caused SWAT teams, heavily armed and trained police forces, to attend.’
John Weate, defending, said Sales was not ‘street-wise’ and was ‘easily led’.
Mr Weate said: ‘He got into this through playing a game called Call of Duty, which is a game which you can play online and which has an army theme to it, and he gets talking to people in other countries or this country.’
He added that Sales deeply regretted his actions but ‘in reality, there could be no excuse for offences of this type’.
The court heard how Sales ‘covered his ears in shame’ when his threats to the FBI agent and his family were played to him.
Sales even gave an interview to a US TV station using the name ‘Ransom’. Asked how many hoaxes he was responsible for, he replied between 25 and 35, including a failed attempt to target the White House. Told the FBI were looking for him, he replied: ‘Yeah – and they can have good luck finding me.’
A joint investigation, called Operation Dollis, was launched by the FBI and UK officers. Sales was finally caught after his IP address was traced to his home in Bidston, Wirral.
The judge said the hoax calls were made against a backdrop of mass shootings in the US. He said: ‘One can only imagine the psychological impact on ordinary members of the public caught up in these events. It must have been absolutely terrifying.’
Sales admitted one charge of threats to kill and 11 of communicating bomb hoaxes.