How did the arrest go? For all you know it was the local cop that took him to the station and put him under arrest. Not to necessarily punish but to imprint that even though the action was minimally invasive for a simple bus ticket, it applied on larger systems, could have a significant effect. So more as a simple friendly deterrent rather than arrest and spent some nights in jail.
I don't think you can call any sort of arrest a simple friendly deterrent, or intended not to punish. That shit's traumatizing. Should he have done that? Probably not. But did he deserve arrest for finding a vulnerability? This could have been a conversation that didn't involve police. The kid could have helped them improve their systems instead of spending taxpayer dollars to send cops to the kid to arrest him.
