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At a net worth of $269 billion, Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk may be the world's richest man, but it hasn't saved him from being hustled by a teenager.
Musk is currently embroiled in a stand-off with a 19-year-old, Jack Sweeney, who runs a Twitter bot that tracks his private jet. Musk offered the teen $5000 to shut the account down and assist him with advice on how to make the jet less trackable.
But the teen basically said "LOLNAH," telling Musk that the joy the jet-tracker brings him is nearly priceless and coming back with a counter-offer ten times higher.
And the internet can't stop cheering.
Elon Musk offered a 19 year-old $5,000 to take down a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, report sayshttp://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-offered-5k-remove-jet-tracker-twitter-account-report-2022-1\u00a0\u2026— Tech Insider (@Tech Insider) 1643279736
It all began when Musk found out about the bots Sweeney had created to track his jet and DM'd him to request he shut down the account, telling Sweeney it was a "security risk." Musk has tweeted recently that the constant barrage of people tracking his whereabouts has become a major problem.
In the DMs, Musk asked Sweeney:
"How about $5k for this account and generally helping make it harder for crazy people to track me?"
Sweeney countered:
"Sounds doable, account and all my help. Any chance to up that to $50K?"
Speaking to Insider, Sweeney said he'd done "a lot of work" on the project, and $5000 wasn't enough to even pay for "the fun I have in this, working on it," let alone the work itself.
Musk told Sweeney he'd think about it, but then came back and declined, saying it "doesn't feel right to pay to shut this down." Instead, he implemented a few basic changes Sweeney had mentioned, which Sweeney said he simply had to "work around" to keep his tracker going. And then he decided to go public about his dealings with Musk.
As he told Insider:
"He went the opposite way of me, so why wouldn't I go the opposite way of him?"
On Twitter, many people absolutely loved Sweeney's hustle of—as a reminder—the wealthiest man on Earth.
I'm laughing because people are still low balling the offer amount.\nMusk is worth billions. If it ain't $50K don't even bother asking the kid.— Junior (@Junior) 1643282428
Dude's worth $240 billion and offers someone $5k?https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-offered-5k-remove-jet-tracker-twitter-account-report-2022-1\u00a0\u2026— Lou Savastani \ud83d\udeb4\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83c\udf7b (@Lou Savastani \ud83d\udeb4\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83c\udf7b) 1643285996
elon musk ensures he has the most tracked private jet of all timehttps://twitter.com/TechInsider/status/1486649082563239936\u00a0\u2026— there was a sewer man (@there was a sewer man) 1643303454
https://twitter.com/ElonJet/status/1486471951606599683?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\u00a0\u2026— Alberta Fact Checker \ud83c\udf08 (@Alberta Fact Checker \ud83c\udf08) 1643334873
I'll personally fundraise to give this kid $5,001.00 to keep it up.https://twitter.com/TechInsider/status/1486649082563239936\u00a0\u2026— \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf2Black\ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf9 Aziz \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddecaNANsi\ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\uddf9 (@\ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf2Black\ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf9 Aziz \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddecaNANsi\ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\uddf9) 1643319520
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-offered-5k-remove-jet-tracker-twitter-account-report-2022-1\u00a0\u2026 definitely don't follow @ElonJet— \ud83c\udff4 historia vulgari \ud83d\udc80 (@\ud83c\udff4 historia vulgari \ud83d\udc80) 1643409894
He made the kid very famous.— EEG (@EEG) 1643310418
He's smart. 5k is too low a price for one's freedom of speech.— Jennifer Sensiba \u4e09\u56db\u516b \ud83c\udf1e\u26a1\ud83d\ude98\u2764\ud83e\udde1\ud83d\udc9b\ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9c (@Jennifer Sensiba \u4e09\u56db\u516b \ud83c\udf1e\u26a1\ud83d\ude98\u2764\ud83e\udde1\ud83d\udc9b\ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9c) 1643227611
Lol awesome. @ElonJet get that money!— ben k (@ben k) 1643227423
Honestly I just feel ike if a BILLIONAIRE offered me $5k to stop doing something they didn't want done, perhaps they didn't really care in the first place. My dudes. 5 grand to Elon is like what? Less than pocket change to a regular human being. He makes BILLIONS of $ per hour!— \u26a1Dannielle\u26a1 (@\u26a1Dannielle\u26a1) 1643526869
Not him slipping this kid a crimpled up dollar bill to delete a twitter accounthttps://twitter.com/TechInsider/status/1486649082563239936\u00a0\u2026— Sarah | Unfriendly Black Techie (@Sarah | Unfriendly Black Techie) 1643319686
In addition to the notoriety Musk inadvertently gave him, Sweeney also told Insider his work on Musk's jet tracker is in his online portfolio.
Whether Musk will capitulate to Sweeney's demands remains to be seen, but at least he's learned a valuable lesson about paying people what they're worth and that's priceless.