Police: Teen said he called in Naples High bomb threat to help friends skip tests

An 18-year-old North Naples man arrested Thursday in the Naples High School bomb hoax said he made the threat to get friends out of taking tests that day, police said.

Grayson Alexander Barry faces a felony charge of making a false report concerning the planting of a bomb.

Barry, who turned 18 on Tuesday, was taken to the Naples Jail Center, and bail was set at $10,000, according to a Naples police arrest report. He made his first appearance in court Friday afternoon.

Related story: After Naples High School is evacuated, bomb threat called 'hoax'

Naples police were notified by the Collier County Sheriff's Office that a bomb threat had been called into Naples High School about 9 a.m. Thursday.

Investigators interviewed the school receptionist who received the call and obtained phone records that showed the call had originated from a Google Voice account belonging to Barry, the arrest report states. Google Voice records indicated the call had been placed from a Samsung cellphone.

Investigators found the call was placed from Barry's account, which was connected via an IP address assigned to an aquatics center on Livingston Road at the time of the call, according to the report.

Barry, who works as a lifeguard at the aquatics center, clocked into work at 5 a.m. Thursday and clocked out at 1 p.m. the same day, the report states.

Investigators went to Barry's home in North Naples, where his mother told them Barry was at Walmart.

Barry's mother gave detectives the empty box for the Samsung model cellphone she had given him. The identifying number for Barry's Samsung cellphone matched the records of the cellphone used to make the false bomb threat, the report states.

Barry's mother then contacted her son and asked him to come back to their home.

Investigators said Barry admitted to them that he made the bomb threat.

Barry told investigators two friends from Naples High School asked him Wednesday for his help "in getting out of testing the following day," the report states. Barry said neither friend knew of his intention to call in a bomb threat to the school Thursday, according to the report.

Barry told investigators he made the bomb threat call while on break at work, then returned to his lifeguard duties and "later retweeted news articles about the bomb threat," the report states.

The bomb threat Thursday led to a full evacuation of the school, caused panic among students and prompted an hours-long sweep of the campus by law enforcement officers. Authorities determined the threat was a hoax.

The threat was made in a call to the school's main phone number just before 9 a.m. The caller said three explosive packages would detonate on the campus in an hour, Naples police reported.

Law enforcement officers from the Naples Police Department and the Sheriff's Office, including the bomb squad, responded to the school. Officers said they found two suspicious packages.

School administrators evacuated all students across Golden Gate Parkway to the Coastland Center mall parking lot, officials said. Students who had not returned home or already left the mall were taken by bus to Gulfview Middle School.

The Collier County bomb squad took X-rays of both packages — a photography bag and a lunchbox with a thermos inside — and deemed neither to be a threat.

The school was determined clear of explosive devices at 1:45 p.m. Thursday, police said. School resumed Friday morning.