Extortion Try ‘Incongruent’ Father Says Son, 21, Accused In Gates Case ‘A 6-Foot-3 Teddy Bear’ To Those Who Know Him

Everybody who knows the Illinois man accused of trying to extort $5 million from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates considers him “a 6-foot-3 teddy bear,” the man’s father says.

“Adam’s really a good kid,” Dana Pletcher, a chiropractor in the north Chicago suburb of Long Grove, Ill., said of his son, Adam Quinn Pletcher, 21.

He said his son, who faces federal extortion charges in Seattle, “is very intelligent. Everybody knows him and calls him a 6-foot-3 teddy bear.”

Court papers say the younger Pletcher mailed four letters to Gates at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters, threatening to shoot him or his wife, Melinda, if the money was not paid. Gates is one of the world’s richest men.

Adam Pletcher was released shortly after his May 9 arrest on a $100,000 property bond posted by his parents. Arraignment was scheduled for Thursday in Seattle.

His father told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer the threats were “totally incongruent” with what he knows about his son.

Adam Pletcher admitted writing and mailing the threatening letters, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court.

“He’s pretty up front, pretty responsible,” his father said. “He holds honesty as a high value. So that’s why he told the FBI what he told them.”

Court documents say the author of the letters told Gates not to notify authorities and warned him that if he did, the writer could kill him with “one bullet from my rifle at a quarter of a mile away.”

The writer also claimed to have killed people while in the military.

A federal grand jury in Seattle indicted Pletcher on an extortion charge Wednesday. Conviction carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.