Elon Musk blocks teen who he offered $5k to stop tracking his plane

Elon Musk has blocked the teenager who asked for $50,000 to stop tracking his private jet.

University of Central Florida (UCF) student Jack Sweeney set up a Twitter account (@ElonJet) that monitors and posts updates on the Tesla founder's movements. The account has amassed almost 300,000 followers, which raised security concerns for the tech mogul.

Musk reached out to the teen and offered $5,000 to take it down. Acknowledging he was speaking to one of the wealthiest people on the planet, Jack came back with a counteroffer of $50,000.

Subsequently, he got blocked.

Jack told The Guardianthat he created the account because he's "really interested in Elon Musk, and Tesla and SpaceX." He added that he thought it would be "interesting to see where he goes and what business he's up to."

He continued: "I asked for $50,000, he said 'thinking about it,' then after a while last week he said 'I don't think it's right to pay to take this down,' and just the other night he blocked me."

Jack said he asked for $50,000 because "it would be nice to help for college" and "it would be cool to buy a Tesla, you know like a Model 3 or something."

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Jack doesn't appear to be stopping his venture anytime soon, with 16 bots on-hand tracking billionaires' private jets such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.

He has since added more prominent faces to his list, including Drake.

"He has the biggest plane out of all of 'em," Jack said. "It's a giant Boeing."

The student's efforts have been recognised more positively by some companies, one of which has offered him a job.

According to the New York Post, private jet business Stratos Jet Charters offered him a position on the tech development team.

Jack said: "It was pretty cool. They're (Stratos Jet Charters) UCF alumni, so it's pretty interesting.

"There's just a lot of UCF that think it's cool."

Indy100 reached out to Jack for comment.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.