San Francisco tech bro jailed in Davos for bringing device prototype that looked like bomb: ‘I’m the idiot’

A tech founder in San Francisco was detained and jailed in from Davos after he accidentally left a device authorities thought resembled a bomb at a luxury hotel hosting the World Economic Forum.

Sebastian Heyneman, 31, traveled to the Swiss town to pitch his product to the global elite but instead ended up behind bars for 13 hours as police probed him on suspicion of terrorism.

It was the tech entrepreneur’s first time at Davos, where he planned to promote his startup developing an anti-fraud device for money transfers. 

Sebastian Heyneman

The entrepreneur’s intended to show off his anti-fraud device — but instead ended up behind bars for 13 hours. Sebastian Heyneman

When he got up to score a free salmon roll from a nearby party, he left behind one of his prototypes — a small black box with loose wires and a motherboard — in the lobby of the Grandhotel Belvédère, according to the San Francisco Standard.

He returned to find the black box gone and a bartender pointing to two burly security guards standing by the door. 

Within hours he was detained by Swiss authorities, who fingerprinted him and checked his identity against a database of international spies.

“I’m the idiot in this,” Heyneman told Semafor. “It’s a black cube with hot glue blobs and wires coming out the side.” 

Authorities found the device to be a potential threat. 

“It was such a comedy of errors,” Heyneman told the Standard, adding that he had “an equipment case that looks kind of like a gun case.”

Detectives and bomb squad personnel arrived and the tech founder was handcuffed.

For the next 13 hours, he was held by “polite” Swiss police, he told Semafor. 

“I thought it would be completely fine, because it’s a piece of plastic, which in retrospect is completely idiotic,” Heyneman told Standard. “I’m not malicious, but I’m very stupid.”