(NEXSTAR) – The unlikely potential business partnership between the wealthiest man in the world and a 19 year-old college student has come to an end. The University of Central Florida freshman Jack Sweeney says Tesla CEO Elon Musk blocked him on Twitter, after negotiations over Sweeney’s Twitter bot that tracks Musk’s private jet failed to take off.
Sweeney told NBC News Monday that Musk, 50, blocked him after Sweeney countered an offer of $5,000 if he deleted @ElonJet, which tracks Musk’s jet using public flight data from ADS-B Exchange. The account has over 275,000 followers.
But Musk himself isn’t a fan and reached out back in November, offering Sweeney $5,000 to take down the bot, citing safety concerns.
“I was an Elon Musk fan and knew he had a jet,” Sweeney told Nexstar on Tuesday of the account’s creation. “I knew he had a jet, so I was interested in where he was going — it seems others are too… So it was cool that he messaged me but at the same time, he was asking me to take it down.”
But Sweeney said he responded with a counter-offer: He’d delete the account in exchange for an internship. He said that message was never responded to, and he later realized Musk had blocked him.
Sweeney, who plans to pursue software work in aviation, said he’s not removing @ElonJet from Twitter. While he told NBC he understands some of Musk’s safety concerns but believes the presence of Musk’s security team minimizes the risk.
As of Tuesday morning, @ElonJet indicates Musk’s jet landed near Harlingen, Texas — and the account notes the jet’s flight path was rather odd. “Looks like they’re working on something or trying to mess with us,” the caption reads.
NBC News reached out to Musk for comment.
