Terrorist or Techie?
In 2007, authorities arrested an MIT student at gunpoint in Boston's Logan International Airport. Her alleged crime? In truth, it was one for the fashion police: the sophomore, a member of the MIT Electronic Research Society who went to the airport to meet her boyfriend, arrived wearing a black sweatshirt decorated with a battery-powered circuit board. To authorities, the contraption looked like it might possibly be a bomb. The student, who was initially charged with possessing a hoax device, reportedly claimed she had no such thing in mind: "She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day," a spokesman for the airport police said at the time. The hoax-device charge was dropped in June 2008. A judge ordered the student to publicly apologize and to complete 50 hours of community service.
Correction appended, 11/30/2009: The original version of this story contained misinformation and did not note that the hoax-device charge was dropped.