A “private joke” between two friends left neither laughing after Marietta police arrested one for a phony note inside his Porsche that it had been wired to explode.
Cops were dispatched around 10:10 a.m. to the Marietta Daily Journal at 47 Waddell Street to find a parked black Porsche with a note on the dashboard that read the car was “modified to explode on contact.”
According to photos shared by police, the note also said a $10,000 fee would be collected “at time explosive charges are removed.”
Cops evacuated six buildings, including some office buildings within the immediate area southeast of the Marietta Square.
The Cobb County Bomb Squad was called in to investigate the vehicle. Officers tracked down the owner of the car inside a building at Marietta Square.
The owner of the Porsche, a 70-year-old Marietta man, told police that the note “was all just a private joke between two friends.” He was charged with one count of misdemeanor reckless conduct.
The car owner’s friend had written the note as a joke and the owner left it where passers-by could see it.
“He claimed to not realize he placed the note in public view on his dashboard, nor that he parked his vehicle directly in front of the local newspaper facility,” Marietta police said in a press release.
The Cobb County Bomb Squad conducted a search of the car, and determined “there was no bomb in the vehicle,” Marietta police spokesman Chuck McPhilamy said.
“In the wake of so many tragedies across the country, police can’t make the assumption that this is not a serious threat,” he said.
Police initially were going to impound the Porsche, but the owner agreed to allow detectives to search the car. He was charged and booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center with a $250 bond.
McPhilamy said the case is considered closed, and the friend who penned the note will not be charged in the case.
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