Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak shares story of being arrested for a fake bomb in high school

There has been no shortage of support for 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas teen who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to class – one that was mistaken as a bomb.

From U.S. president Barack Obama, to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, people all over the world have been taking to social media to support the Muslim teen who simply wanted to show his engineering teacher his project.

As it turns out, Mohamed has a lot in common with the co-founder of one of the world’s most successful and influential tech companies.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak took to his Facebook page Wednesday to share a high school experience of his own.

“The story about the kid arrested for making a clock takes me back to high school in 1967. I built an electronic metronome and placed it in a friend’s locker, along with a tin-foil switch to speed up the ticking when the locker was opened,” he wrote.

“I couldn’t hold my laughter when Principal Bryld told me how he extracted the ‘bomb,’ ran out to the football field (from the C building), and dismantled it.”

READ MORE: Canadian actor Stephen Amell to ‘go away for a bit’ after Ahmed Mohamed, Texas comments

Wozniak wound up in juvenile detention for his prank – but the technologist said he believes that kind of trouble can be essential to creative thinking.

“From the most creative people I meet in high tech, I’d suggest that slight misbehavior is an essential ingredient of creative thinking,” Wozniak wrote in response to a comment on his Facebook page.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "From the most creative people I meet in high tech, I'd suggest that slight misbehavior is an essential ingredient of creative thinking," Wozniak wrote in response to a comment on his Facebook page.

Wozniak called Mohamed a “modern day hero” in his post, adding that he hopes to see his talent blossom after the incident.

Although the 9th-grader was not charged by police, he remains suspended from school until Thursday. The student said he plans to transfer to a private school.

–with files from Global News’ Adam Frisk and The Associated Press