Daily London
“I’m completely sorry for anyone that thought that I was some kind of threat to them,” he said.
“I literally just walked around with a weight vest to get some training in.”
Machaya said he did not know the vest was going to raise suspicion and that it was wrapped in tape because “the weights were falling out”.
He spent the night behind bars, pleading in court after what he described as an honest mistake.
The 34-year-old told 9News that he now understands why he was stopped and that the community was tense, however, he believes authorities overreacted.
“A bomb threat is a bomb threat,” he said.
“I don’t think they needed to keep me in jail for about 14 hours for a weight vest that they could have just looked at right then and there.
A magistrate is set to decide whether Machaya’s acts were malicious or misguided.
