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Man denies he threatened to blow up Orlando FDLE office

ORLANDO, Fla. — A 26-year-old who was arrested on charges of threatening to blow up the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Orlando office Monday is denying he made the threat, authorities said.

According to investigators, Pedro Cerutti Jr. called FDLE's Regional Operations Center in Orlando and threatened to blow up the building.

But Cerutti and his family deny the accusations and discussed the arrest with Eyewitness News.

"They put out a gun towards my husband and as I came out they pulled it towards me," mother Maria Cerutti said.

Maria Cerutti said she was terrified as authorities came to their south Orange County home to arrest her son.

"I know he did not do this," Maria Cerutti said.

Eyewitness News was there when her son called home from the Orange County Jail.

"I promise to God they don't have no recording that I was making a bomb threat," Pedro Cerutti Jr. said over the phone.

The Cerutti family said the ordeal stems from an incident at the Orange County Jail in 2011. While in jail, Pedro Cerutti was charged with exposing himself to corrections officers, but he was later found not guilty in the case. He claims he went to FDLE in January to file a complaint against the corrections officers.

"When he went with his father, they had informed him that he was trespassed," Maria Cerutti said.

But FDLE officials said Pedro Cerutti was belligerent when he showed up at the agency's office.

Pedro Cerutti said he only called FDLE to check on the status of his complaint, but they wouldn't help him.

"She kept hanging up the phone, so when I called back the fourth or fifth time, a guy got on the phone and said 'You just made a bomb threat, we're going to pick you up tonight,'" Pedro Cerutti said.

An FDLE official told WFTV they did not know whether Pedro Cerutti's phone call was recorded. He's being held at the Orange County Jail on $5,000 bail.