MacDill Threat

⏱ 2 min read

Jonathan James Elder, a 35-year-old St. Petersburg man, called in a threat to MacDill Air Force Base on March 18, 2026, just days after a suspicious package was discovered at the base’s Visitor Control Center. Elder’s chilling threat, which included yelling ‘tick tick boom, it’s gonna be between your eyes,’ prompted a four-hour lockdown of the base. The threat was made in the wake of the discovery of the suspicious package, which had been found earlier that week.

According to the complaint, Elder’s call to MacDill Air Force Base was not his only threatening call that day. Before calling the base, Elder had called another number and made violent threats, stating that he would ‘f*cking torture’ someone and send them a ‘pipe bomb that actually explodes’ if they messed with his medication again.

Elder was later located and arrested by agents in St. Petersburg and remains in federal custody. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. The investigation was conducted by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Tampa, which includes the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

The case highlights the serious consequences of making threats against military installations and the swift response of law enforcement agencies to such threats. The FBI and other agencies take all threats seriously and will work tirelessly to identify and prosecute those who make them.