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SALT LAKE CITY — An apparent prank that involved the words "hijack" and "kill Obama" didn't go over well with the FBI and Secret Service.
A Clinton man now faces criminal charges for slipping a threatening note into a co-worker's luggage before he boarded a Delta Air Lines flight last August, according to federal court documents filed Wednesday.
Jeremiah Douglas Hill, while at Hill Air Force Base, wrote a letter saying "1 — Hijack Plane, 2 — Kill Obama" and placed it in a case that another man was taking on a flight to Tucson, court documents state. A TSA screener found the letter and notified his supervisor who called the FBI, which launched an investigation.
In an interview with FBI and Secret Service agents, Hill, 31, said he wrote the letter as a practical joke and placed it in the case partially sticking out so his co-workers would see it, court documents state.
Hill is charged with one misdemeanor count of making a false alarm for intentionally circulating a false warning of a plane hijacking, according to court documents. He is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate judge May 30.
Court documents don't indicate whether Hill is a civilian or in the military or whether he works on the air base.
