Pink Bomb Scare: Australian Teen Arrested After Tweeting Alleged Threat at Singer's Melbourne Concert

Police in Melbourne slap nuisance charges on a 16-year-old after a poorly worded tweet is mistaken for a bomb threat

By Josh Grossberg Jul 09, 2013 2:14 PMTags
PinkJim Dyson/Getty Images

Unfortunately, this Pink fan gave authorities a reason to put him in jail. 

An Australian teenager has been arrested after touching off a bomb scare when he tweeted some lyrics from the singer's song before her concert on Sunday night at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

"@Pink I'm ready with my Bomb. Time to blow up #RodLaverArena. Bitch," the 16-year-old wrote in the now-deleted tweet, though police declined to release his name because he's a minor.

While the reference was actually to Pink's ditty "Timebomb," because the tweet's hashtag linked to the arena's official Twitter page, venue security got wind of it and managed to pick the boy out of the crowd of 12,000 people using his Twitter profile picture and eject him before the show began.

He was taken into custody and slapped with public nuisance charges before later being released. 

The teen has subsequently taken to explaining himself in the media, saying he meant no harm and was simply referencing a tune off of the hitmaker's latest album, The Truth About Love, after the concert had already been delayed by an hour.

"It was meant to be about drop the effects, the music, everything—just drop it all," the minor told the Seven Network (via the Sydney Morning Herald). 

The teen's sister told Melbourne's Herald Sun that it was a poorly worded tweet and that her sibling's never been in any trouble before and was shocked to be accosted by venue security.

"It was freezing cold, and he didn't mean it like that. He wrote it as in one of her songs is called "Timebomb" and he forgot to put the "Time" on there," she told the paper.

The sister added that her family didn't like how security guards basically "jumped on him," though she did commend how police handled the situation once her brother was brought in.

"They spoke to him, they fed him and someone was there making jokes with him," she said. "They just thought he needed a kick in the bum and that's all he really needed." 

The teen was expected to charged on a summons, but all things considered, it could have been worse.

A rep for Pink could not be reached for comment.

But a spokeswoman for Rod Laver Arena told the Morning Herald their first order of business is ensuring public safety.

"We can't risk not taking matters like this seriously," she said. "Our security staff acted to ensure the area was secure and handed the matter over to the police."

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