WASHINGTON: A man who drove to a security checkpoint near the White House in a stolen car was arrested after stating "there's a bomb in the trunk," authorities say.
A police report says 29-year-old Sean Patrick Keoughan of Roanoke, Virginia, got out of the car at the checkpoint Saturday and was clasping something in his hand when he made the threat. The report says that while he was being taken to the ground he stated: "This is a test."
Keoughan was arrested for making a false bomb threat and unauthorized use of a vehicle. Police in Roanoke said in a statement that the vehicle was stolen Friday and was a rental car. Police said the three people who were using the vehicle had gotten out of the car at an overlook in Roanoke and left the vehicle unlocked and running when it was taken.
Military officials on Monday released information that Keoughan served in the Navy for six years, leaving in 2014 as an aviation electronics technician. Ensign Marc Rockwellpate, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy Office of Information, said he could not release details of Keoughan's discharge because it is private information.
Keoughan's wasn't the only arrest Saturday at the White House. That same day, 58-year-old William Bryant Rawlinson of Silver Spring, Maryland, was arrested on a charge of unlawful entry after jumping a metal barrier just outside a White House fence.
President Donald Trump wasn't at the White House at the time of either incident.