FLUSHING — An Elmhurst teenager has been charged with making phony bomb threats to the Arthur Ashe Stadium during the US Open tennis championship Sept. 2, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Mahmet Kadayifci, 19, an employee of the U.S. Tennis Association, was assigned to the fire watch area at the US Open, Brown said. He faces charges of falsely reporting an incident, the DA said. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison, Brown said.
On the evening of Sept. 2, a phone operator told USTA officials that someone had contacted her saying a bomb had been planted in Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium. A second operator called 10 minutes later to report another report of a bomb in the USTA's fire command center, where Kadayifci was working. A third call came in less than half an hour after the first, giving a final warning, Brown said.
When contacted by police, Kadayifci allegedly admitted to using his laptop to access a Web site which he used to place the bomb threats as a prank.
