Missouri man, 19, arrested for calling in hoax bomb threat

A Missouri teenager called a hoax bomb threat into a Ford assembly plant on Tuesday with the hope that he and his coworkers could enjoy an early night off from work, according to prosecutors.

Zachariah Peterson, 19, was hit with a felony charge for making a terroristic threat that resulted in an evacuation and full-scale swatting of the assembly plant in Kansas City.

Peterson allegedly called the factory’s security team just before 5:30 p.m. with a fake warning that he was hiding inside a bathroom with “an AK-47 rifle, with three magazines, a handgun and had one pound of C4 explosives strapped to his chest,” court documents state.

Peterson — who used a phone app to disguise his voice — did not identify himself but claimed he was an employee who would start firing if his 2,200 colleagues were not immediately evacuated.

During the call, he also said “he was tired of being worked like a slave and his hours were getting cut,” the records allege.

“He stated he wanted the plant to be evacuated and everyone to go home for the night.”

Investigators had a suspicion the threat may have been a hoax, but couldn’t rule out the possibility that an active shooter was somewhere inside the 6 million-square-foot plant.

It took six hours for more than 100 officers from numerous law enforcement agencies — including the FBI — to completely search the Ford factory, according to Clay County Sherrif Will Akin.

“This hoax created a huge strain on law enforcement. Not to mention the financial loss that Ford suffered from shutting down production,” the sheriff said.

Police tracked down Peterson at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday inside his Independence home, where the teen allegedly admitted to calling in the bomb threat and said he got the idea from a video game.

“The suspect stated he understood what C4 was as he played Call of Duty,” Peterson’s probable cause statement reads.

Despite admitting to making the call, Peterson claimed his innocence in court Thursday.

“Not guilty because I was forced,” Peterson said, according to KMBC.

The 19-year-old did not elaborate on his plea.

Peterson — who was looking for one night off of work — now faces a potential seven years behind bars.

He is being held in Clay County Detention Center in lieu of $150,000 bond.