A bomb threat, handed over with a piece of Starburst candy and passed to someone shopping at a Boston Urban Outfitters store, has landed a 19-year-old from Pennsylvania in legal trouble, prosecutors said Sunday.
Lucas Lembeck was arrested soon after the bomb threat was reported at the Newbury Street store on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. He allegedly admitted passing a note to someone on a yellow Starburst in a prank that was meant to be funny.
Lembeck admitted, "it was dumb," and was arrested on a charge of bomb/hijack threat, prosecutors said in a statement. The Wayne, Pennsylvania, resident was released on personal recognizance after a court hearing Wednesday. He's due back in court April 14.
It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to his arrest.
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The incident was reported about 12:40 p.m. at the Urban Outfitters on the corner of Newbury Street and Massachusetts Avenue, prosecutors said. The person who called police told officers they were shopping when a stranger approached and said, "it's national Starburst day, I want you to have this."
Prosecutors said he handed over a note and the yellow Starburst, and was gone when the shopper read the message: "I have a bomb don't say a (expletive) word."
Investigators reviewed security footage, seeing someone matching the man's description, and the shopper, while speaking with officers, spotted the person he'd spoken with across the street, prosecutors said.
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When officers approached the man, identified as Lembeck, and asked if he'd been in the Urban Outfitters, he replied, "I don't believe so," but then admitted he had been after being read his Miranda rights, according to prosecutors. He also allegedly admitted to passing the note, which he thought the shopper would know was a prank, and when officers asked what color the Starburst was, he said it was yellow.
They found paper in Lembeck's pocket that matched the note and several packages of Starbucks candy, one of which was opened.
"It's difficult to fathom how in this day and age anyone would consider it a prank to hand a note to a perfect stranger in the middle of a major city indicating they were holding a bomb. As this case indicates, such a reckless action causes fear and comes with consequences," Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
