There’s no need to put it elegantly: missing your flight sucks.

You spend all that money on a seat that soars through the air and drops you off at a new place, and, for a variety of reasons, you miss your shot. We all have our own ways of taking out our frustrations about missing a flight.

Maybe we pound mozzarella sticks and watered-down cocktails at the airport Chili’s. 23-year-old John Charles Robinson from Monroe, Michigan’s way of handling it was to commit a federal crime.

Robinson missed his 7 AM flight to LA on June 5. So, according to a criminal complaint, he came up with a brilliant idea. See, rather than try to get his money back from Southwest Airlines or try to reschedule for the next available flight, he decided to call in a bomb threat.

His logic was sound, if also, at the same time, deeply, deeply flawed. He figured that a bomb threat would delay the flight, thus giving him more time to catch it.  

Man Late for His Flight Called in a Bomb Threat to Delay It

Honestly, it’s a great plan, other than the federal crime part of it. He could’ve rebooked it, but instead, he felt that a six-hour delay, the sparking of federal investigations, and an evacuation of the plane were all worth it.

 The call came in at 6:25 a.m., a few minutes before his missed flight. Robinson told Spirit Airlines that someone was “gonna try to blow up the airport,” specifically flight 2145. He even threw in a vague description of the “bomber” and claimed the bomb wouldn’t be detected.

The plane was already boarded and its doors closed, ready to depart, had to be immediately pulled over into a remote location where it’s passengers could be deplaned and bused back to the terminal, all of whom were then subjected to additional screenings while bomb-sniffing dogs and FBI agents swept the aircraft to find absolutely nothing because it was all made up by one desperate idiot.

The FBI traced the call back to Robinson through cell phone records. They found him later that day, trying to catch his rebooked 6:28 p.m. flight to L.A., which he could have just done in the first place rather than striking fear into the hearts of several dozen people with a fake bomb threat.

When he was questioned, authorities say he initially denied everything, but there was nowhere to hide once the phone records were brought in. He fessed up, admitting that he was hoping that the bomb threat would buy him enough time to catch his flight. It did not.

So far, no reporting of the story seems to explain what the rush was. Los Angeles was going to be there, whether he had to catch a rebooked flight or not. But now, for his efforts, he’s facing charges for making a hoax and using a cell phone to maliciously convey false information in an attempt to damage or destroy an airplane.