College Student Fakes Bomb Threat To Avoid Taking Exam

In a startlingly original take on cheating, former Ohio State University student Jonathan M. Birkmeyer pled guilty on Monday to maliciously conveying false information when he faked a bomb threat to avoid taking an exam he had one day in November of last year. The bomb threat caused four campus buildings to be evacuated. More from the school’s newspaper, The Lantern:

FBI special agent Kenneth Smith read a statement of facts during the hearing relating to the FBI’s investigation of the events. Smith quoted from the email that Birkemeyer sent to the FBI’s tip website at 7:38 a.m. on Nov. 16.

“I have a paper that I found that has a detailed map of nine bombs placed in four different buildings on the Ohio State University campus,” Smith read. “Sheets say bombs made of chemical and high explosive powder?”

Birkemeyer looked on stoically as Smith read the report.

The threat caused massive disruption when the FBI alerted OSU officials later that November morning… The FBI, OSU Police and Columbus Fire Department bomb squad combed the buildings for 12 hours with bomb-sniffing dogs, ultimately finding no evidence of an actual threat.

Despite the fact that Birkmeyer had, ironically, been studying criminology, the FBI traced the bomb threat back to him within a matter of days. Amid the ensuing investigation, the student withdrew from the university during Winter quarter. He currently awaits sentencing.

On a final note – to Birkmeyer’s credit, the exam was cancelled that day. But when he took the rescheduled test two days later, he failed it.