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Early morning threatening tweets land Moon Lake man in jail

 
Upham
Upham
Published April 26, 2017

MOON LAKE — The man made bomb threats over Twitter, Pasco County deputies said, claiming he had placed explosives around local government buildings.

And he stole a neighbor's Wi-Fi to do it, they said.

Terrance Upham, 43, of the Moon Lake neighborhood near New Port Richey, sent the tweets in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"A pipe bomb an other exploxives (sic) will detonate an placed in an around pasco government building," Upham tweeted from the handle @repit4u, deputies said.

And they kept coming, from 2:58 a.m. to 3:54 a.m.:

• "Pasco OEM respond an it will set off explosions in Pasco the Sheriffs department for the Killing spree."

• "Explosives, IED's, local government, Family business, I take full responsibility for the killing spree."

• "Pasco the Sheriffs department explosives an more goal to kill many pigs."

Detectives issued subpoenas to learn the name of the person behind the Twitter account and from where the tweets originated. That led them to 10036 Loy St., just a few houses down from Upham's. A witness told detectives Upham had been sitting outside his neighbor's home, where he was using the Wi-Fi.

The Wi-Fi network, Upham told deputies, was called "linksys" and was unprotected. The owners of the network hadn't given Upham permission to use it.

Upham didn't tell deputies why he made the threats, which prompted the Sheriff's Office to alert nearby law enforcement agencies and do additional security checks at government buildings. No explosives were found, nor did detectives find any explosive material in Upham's home.

Upham faces four counts of written threats to kill or do bodily injury, three counts of making a false report about planting an explosive, one count of offenses against a computer user, and one count each of possession or use of drug paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine, which deputies found in his possession. His bail was set at $95,150.

He's been arrested in Pasco two previous times, records show: once in 2013 on a charge of driving under the influence, and once in 2015 on charges of possessing drug paraphernalia and violating a domestic violence injunction.