A 15 year old boy, Cody Webb, spent 12 days in a juvenile detention center accused of making a bomb threat against the school. The problem is that both school faculty and police officers failed to grasp the fact that in the spring time Daylight savings causes clocks to move ahead an hour.
If it hadn’t been Daylight Savings the timeline would have looked like this.
3/11/07 2:17 a.m. – Caller ID registers a call from Cody Webb’s phone number.
3/11/07 3:17 a.m. – School’s voicemail system receives a bomb threat.
With Daylight Savings the timeline looks like this.
3/11/07 3:17 a.m. - Caller ID registers a call from Cody Webb’s phone number. (Caller ID system had been updated for Daylight Savings)
3/11/07 3:17 a.m. – School’s voicemail system receives a bomb threat. (School’s voicemail system hasn’t been updated for Daylight Savings)
I can’t believe that nobody was able to figure out this mistake for 12 days. It didn’t dawn on a single person for 12 days that maybe they should confirm the timestamps because the clocks had changed the night before? Talk about operating with your head up your ass.
Webb gave an insight into the school’s impressive investigative techniques, saying that he was ushered in to see the principal, Kathy Charlton. She asked him what his phone number was, and , according to Webb, when he replied ’she started waving her hands in the air and saying “we got him, we got him.‒
‘They just started flipping out, saying I made a bomb threat to the school,’ he told local television station KDKA. After he protested his innocence, Webb says that the principal said: ‘Well, why should we believe you? You’re a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.’
Of course after reading the above quotes it makes it a little easier to see how the mistake wasn’t found for 12 days.
Boy jailed over clock change mix-up
