After Cruise Began, Miffed Teen Sent Fake Bomb Threat

It's a lesson in how not to vent anger at your girlfriend's family: A Michigan teen has been sentenced to eight months in prison after emailing a bogus bomb threat to a cruise ship that had left port in Miami, reports the AP. Federal prosecutors say Joshua Lowe, 19, was ticked off because the family—with whom he lived—went on the cruise without him and left him to watch the family pets, according to a news release from the US Attorney's Office in western Michigan.

"Hey, I think someone might have a bomb on your sunrise cruise ship," the email to Carnival Cruise Lines read in January 2024. This prompted a painstaking search of the ship, and Carnival also alerted the US Coast Guard and and Jamaican authorities. Authorities were eventually able to trace the hoax email back to Lowe. "This is all my fault and (I) take full responsibility," he wrote in a letter to the judge in the case, according to court filings obtained by the AP.

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