Elon Musk Reaches Out to Teen Tracking His Private Jet With $5,000 Offer

Elon Musk provided $5,000 (roughly Rs. 3.75 lakh) to a tech-savvy teenager to cease monitoring his non-public jet resulting from issues about his private security. The teenager, a school pupil, was preserving tabs on the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s non-public jet and that of a number of high-profile figures utilizing publicly out there knowledge. Musk reached out to 19-year-old Jack Sweeney in November 2021 together with his issues concerning the Twitter account Sweeney runs, known as Elon Musk’s Jet (@ElonJet). But Sweeney turned down the supply and as a substitute requested for $50,000 (roughly Rs. 37.55 lakh), saying it might cowl his college charges and permit him to purchase a automotive, presumably even a Tesla Model 3.

The negotiation between Musk and Sweeney reportedly occurred over a number of direct messages on Twitter. Musk initially gave the impression to be urgent for particulars of how Sweeney arrange the bots to trace the planes and what he earned by working them.

@ElonJet is one in every of 15 flight-tracking accounts Sweeney has created, states Protocol. Each one follows a high-profile particular person, together with the likes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. But the account devoted to monitoring Musk’s airplane has essentially the most variety of followers (over 115,000 on the time of writing).

Eventually, Musk provided Sweeney $5,000 to close down the account. “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” Musk was quoted as saying in a report by New York Post. But Sweeney made a counter-offer of $50,000 to do this. “It [the amount] would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car, maybe even a Model 3.”

Musk first mentioned he would think about Sweeney’s supply however later mentioned it did not “feel right” to pay to close down the account. When requested about receiving direct messages from Musk, Sweeney informed the New York Post it was “awesome, but kinda scary.” He mentioned he can be all for working for one in every of Musk’s firms sooner or later, perhaps for an internship.