A bored-to-death city teacher sent his wife a joke text Friday, playfully begging her to call in a bomb threat to save him from a monotonous meeting — but she misread the message and sent the cops to his East Harlem school.
The man, whose first name is Eric, had been sitting in a morning town-hall meeting at Renaissance Charter HS for Innovation, a fellow instructor told The Post.
Teachers typically run through the day’s events during such meetings. This one apparently wasn’t lively enough for Eric, who started text messaging his wife about his bad case of boredom.
“Call in a bomb threat,” he wrote, according to police sources.
His wife zeroed in on the B-word — overlooking the “haha” he tacked on in the next message.
She called the cops, reporting a bomb threat at the school, which shares a building with three other charter schools at 410 E. 100th St., police sources said.
Only after the wife hung up did she notice her hubby’s “haha.” She phoned the cops again to call it off — but it was too late.
Police told her they needed to look into the matter anyway, law-enforcement sources said.
Eight uniformed police officers showed up at the high school at around 9:50 a.m. asking to speak with the texting teacher.
“It was meant to be a joke. It was misconstrued, and, boy, oh, boy, before we knew it, there were cops here,” said the school’s executive director, Stephen Falla Riff.
Staffers were taken by surprise.
“They tell us that a bomb threat has been called in. We hadn’t heard anything about that,” Falla Riff recalled.
The cops questioned Eric for “some time,” he said.
“The NYPD was satisfied it was a joke,” Falla Riff said. “If they thought there was any doubt whatsoever, my guess is that he would be in cuffs right now.”
They left without searching the school or making any arrests.
Staff had to call up students’ parents to explain it was just a false alarm with no actual threat.
Falla Riff said he would wait until Monday to decide whether Eric should be reprimanded.
“We’re really committed to due process,” he said. “Any outcome will be based on the facts.”
Additional reporting by Kathleen Culliton, Dana Sauchelli and Aaron Short.