The 19-year-old who turned down $5,000 from Elon Musk to stop tracking his private jet has gotten a job offer out of the viral saga

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The 19-year-old who turned down $5,000 from Elon Musk to stop tracking his private jet has gotten a job offer out of the viral saga
Elon Musk's Tesla bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin in January.Picture Alliance/Getty Images
  • The teen who went viral for tracking Elon Musk's private jet got a job offer out of the saga.
  • The New York Post said Jack Sweeney was offered work with Stratos Jet Charters.
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The teen who went viral for tracking Elon Musk's private jet on Twitter has gotten a job offer out of that pursuit.

Jack Sweeney, 19, has been offered work with the Orlando, Florida, private-charter-flight company Stratos Jet Charters, the New York Post first reported Tuesday.

"It was pretty cool. They're UCF alumni, so it's pretty interesting," Sweeney told the Post of the job opportunity.

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Stratos President and CEO Joel Thomas told the Post the company offered Sweeney work on its development team after seeing his "creativity" in starting the Twitter account Elon Musk's Jet.

Thomas confirmed to Insider that the company reached out to Sweeney about employment.

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"Seeing Jack's interest in private aviation along with his adroit tech capability, I opened the door to him to join our development team," Thomas said. "Understanding that he is currently enrolled at UCF, Stratos is happy to work with him on a project basis, part time, or internship to help him further his educational goals."

Thomas added: "I see Jack as having both a passion for aviation and for tech. I believe this is the recipe to help Stratos continue to raise the bar that others are chasing."

Sweeney also confirmed to Insider that he received the offer but said he wasn't likely to accept given his work at UberJets, where he's building a platform to track chartered flights to help find cheaper seats for clients.

"I already work for UberJets, and I'm on an NDA, so I can't really take it," he said.

Sweeney and his @ElonJet Twitter account went viral last month after Protocol reported that Musk offered the teen $5,000 in the fall to take down the account. Messages between Sweeney and Musk showed the Tesla and SpaceX CEO calling the account "a security risk" and saying, "I don't love the idea of being shot by a nutcase." Musk had said earlier in January that social-media accounts tracking his movements were "becoming a security issue."

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Sweeney asked the CEO to bump the offer up to $50,000. Musk said he'd think about it and later said it didn't "feel right" to pay to take down the account.

Sweeney recently told Insider's Isobel Asher Hamilton that he enjoyed maintaining the account too much to give it up for $5,000. On Monday, Sweeney told Bloomberg that Musk over the weekend blocked all social-media accounts linked to the teen.

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