The bomb threat that shut Harvard down on Monday was emailed by Eldo Kim, a sophomore at the university who didn’t want to take his final exams.

Harvard Student Responsible For Bomb Hoax

Kim sent out his faux-warning email 20 minutes prior to his 8:30 a.m. exam, reported the Boston Globe. In his email, he wrote that there were “shrapnel bombs” in four on-campus buildings – Emerson, Sever, and Thayer Halls and the Science Center. Incidentally, the 20-year-old student's scheduled exam was to take place in Emerson. “[Be] quick for they will go off soon,” Kim warned in the email sent to Harvard police and university officials, as well as the school’s newspaper.

As Kim was betting on, his final was canceled and all four of the buildings he listed were evacuated. President Barack Obama was briefed on the threat, and the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the United States Secret Service; the Harvard University Police Department; the Cambridge Police Department; the Boston Police Department; and the Massachusetts State Police all reported to Harvard Yard.

Eldo Kim Confessed To FBI

Kim, a psychology major, did take steps to hide his identity – including using an anonymous email service and a temporary IP address. His mistake was using a Harvard wireless network to create the IP. By Monday night, campus police and an FBI agent were at his dorm and able to get a confession.

“According to Kim, upon hearing the alarm, he knew that his plan had worked,” FBI agent Thomas M. Dalton wrote in the affidavit of the student's confession.

Bomb-hoax charges can carry a penalty of up to five year in prison and a $250,000 fine.

– Chelsea Regan

Get Uinterview's FREE iPhone App For Daily News Updates here.

Get the FREE Uinterview iPad app here and watch our videos anywhere.