22-year-old Danielle Shea admitted to police that she called them to report a phoney bomb alert in order to prevent her parents from finding out she would not be taking part in her graduation ceremony.
Danielle called police half an hour before the ceremony, telling them: ‘Several bombs are on campus. You haven’t cleared out graduation. That’s not a good idea.’
University officials reacted to the alert by moving the ceremony from the university quad to the campus sports hall.
338 students and thousands of spectators were moved, causing a massive delay.
Police then searched the Connecticut-based university library for 17 minutes only to discover the alert had been a hoax.
Danielle was later arrested in her graduation cap and gown after officers tracked the phone call.
It emerged that she made the false reports to prevent her parents from finding out she wasn’t graduating after she failed to register for classes. She then ‘panicked’ when her family noticed her name wasn’t on the list of graduates.
Danielle was reportedly concerned her parents would be upset with her after they payed thousands of dollars towards her education.
The student is being held in custody on a $20,000 bond and has been charged with first-degree threatening and false reporting.