Mom Arrested After Son Makes Dry Ice "Bombs" 571
formfeed writes "Police were called to a house in Omaha where a 14-year-old made some 'dry ice bombs' (dry ice in soda bottles). Since his mom knew about it, she is now facing felony charges for child endangment and possession of a destructive device. From the article: 'Assistant Douglas County Attorney Eric Wells said the boy admitted to making the bomb and that his mother knew he was doing so. The boy was set to appear Tuesday afternoon in juvenile court, accused of possessing a destructive device.'" She's lucky they didn't find the baking soda volcano in the basement.
Just noisy (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow! (Score:5, Interesting)
Is popping balloons also illegal in this neighborhood?
Hyperbole or stupidity (Score:5, Interesting)
So dry ice in a plastic soda bottle constitutes a "bomb" these days? I mean, I suppose you could "put an eye out" with it, but it's not really what I would call a "bomb". Are the police just stupid, or is the prosecuting attorney delving into hyperbole?
Well, yeah actually. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Just noisy (Score:5, Interesting)
You can do it harmlessly, but by point of contrast, a couple kids in my high school did that, and actually hurt a teacher who got hit by shrapnel.
Re:Hyperbole or stupidity (Score:5, Interesting)
So dry ice in a plastic soda bottle constitutes a "bomb" these days? I mean, I suppose you could "put an eye out" with it, but it's not really what I would call a "bomb". Are the police just stupid, or is the prosecuting attorney delving into hyperbole?
When I was 13yo I had a friend in middle school that had recently returned from an out of state 4th of July vacation, and came home with a ton of illegal-in-my-state fireworks. I convinced him that it would be a great idea to bring a backpack full to school so we should shoot them off.
Suffice to say that he did bring them, and we skipped the last class of the day and ventured out to the track and field long jump pit. Then, in a blaze of glory we lit off a backpack full of m-80's, black-cats, whistlers, smoke bombs, etc. Just about the time our hearing was returning, we noticed that all 4 grade level principals were rushing us.
At the end of the day, we were yelled at by 4 school principals, 1 school superintendent, 1 county sheriff, 1 deputy sheriff, 4 city police officers, the city bomb squad, the county SWAT unit, the fire chief, the paramedics, and last but not least our parents. I had to pay $400 to sit through a 6hour juvenile delinquent rehab seminar.
The best part is that my poor friend cried the whole time, while I laughed almost hysterically. Now, I told you that story so I could tell you this story: when I my father was 13yo, his neighbor had a son the same age, and they would often go hunting and fishing, and exploring together. The neighbor would often give his son and my father a crate of dynamite and simply tell them "you boys be careful, now!"
The think-of-the-kids mentality is almost solely responsible for this pussification of the USA. Won't someone think of the adults!?!?
Re:Pfft, I can top that. (Score:3, Interesting)
It was awesome, but then my friend lived in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but trees for acres.
Soccer Ball (Score:5, Interesting)
We did something similar in our teen years while working at a recreation center with a soccer ball.
Having found a spare soccer ball and with one of those desktop mounted air pumps we would put an increasing amount of pressure into the soccer ball and then the guys would bounce the thing around the gym. This went in stages, a little more pressure, the guys would go back to kicking the ball around the building, then back for more air pressure...
After seven or eight of these cycles of increasing pressure in the soccer ball it took on a distinct metallic sound when bouncing. The soccer ball had about 115 PSI in it and the guys decided to kick it around the hallway that connected several of the rooms in the recreation center. I was watching the fun and one of the guys kicked the ball and it hit the edge of a table and was bouncing up and down on top of the table. From 25 feet away I could hear brittle cracking sounds coming from the ball... At the last instant I have the picture of one of the guys running away from the ball with a look of fear on his face. Right at that moment the ball exploded like a bomb.
The sound of the explosion just left my ears with a buzzy, ringing sound as the guys are laughing their asses off. Quickly they grabbed all of the soccer ball shrapnel and hid it right as the senior citizens group was pouring out of their meeting room. There were retirees who must have served in WW II who were looking for the 250 pound bomb crater or airplane crash, asking furious questions about where the bomb went off.
To their credit, the guys just looked quizzically at the senior citizens and said "what noise?".
Doing a post mortem on the soccer ball one of the sewn panels failed and ejected the air bladder from the ball. The soccer ball skin was turned inside out. There were tiny little shards of rubber ball liner everywhere.
Kids do stupid stuff. Outlaw CO2 (since it is a greenhouse gas and eeevil too). Adults will not stop the never-ending quest by kids for things that go BOOM!
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:2, Interesting)
Plenty have been accosted or detained for doing nothing more than taking pictures of trains from passenger platforms and similar places
I feel your pain... I'm an aviation geek, and I'm waiting for the day I get shot for standing on the top floor of the BWI parking garage with my scanner listening to ATC while watching departures from RWY 15-R.
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:3, Interesting)
Just take the photo and don't worry about it. Even if you're stopped, offering to delete the photograph should presumably satisfy most security/police, and while it's not solving the problem you'll at least have photographs for the 99.9% of times you're not stopped.
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:5, Interesting)
To a large degree the war was started by (mostly) well meaning people at the end of the 19th century who had just lived through the Industrial Revolution and concluded that interchangeable, standardized humans would revolutionize society (for the better) in the same way that interchangeable, standardized components revolutionized manufacturing. Back then the 20th century's two biggest examples of progressivism, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had not yet seen the light of day. This is back when most people believed in a neat, orderly universe created by the watchmaker god. All living things could by precisely classified into a uniform hierarchy. Their view of the universe did not allow for chaos, quantum physics and ring species. As it turns out, they were wrong but the less-well meaning elements certainly aren't going to let go of the power without a fight (or a collapse).
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:2, Interesting)
In Baltimore, a series of loud bangs is indeed probable cause (and for good reason too), given that it has an "actual" crime problem.
Baltimore City != Baltimore County. One of the rare large cities in the US that is outside of the jurisdiction of a county. (St. Louis being the other, IIRC.)
Honestly, I'm not complaining about what the Baltimore County cop did. It's reasonable to investigate. And as long as everyone has a round of laughter at the end and the officer goes away wishing everyone a good day, it's cool.
But, sadly, that isn't the case for a lot of law enforcement these days. (Hence the /. story.)
Things just aren't the same... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pfft, I can top that. (Score:5, Interesting)
For chemistry open days at school, we used to run a series of demos. One of the things I would do was chill a boiling tube and put a tiny bit of dry ice in the bottom. I'd then put the cork on and give it to someone in the audience to hold, telling them to keep it held straight and that I'd need it for a demo a bit later. Typically, about a minute later there's be a very loud bang as the heat from their hand caused the carbon dioxide to expand enough to force the bung out at high speed. It sometimes ricochetted and hit one of the other people in the audience.
We also discovered that dipping your hand in ether and lighting it kept the flames far enough away from you that it didn't hurt (due to the fact that it's only the gas that's burning, and it's only burning when it is diluted enough that it can get a lot of air), at least for ten seconds or so. We'd hold a lighter in one hand, reach out to shake hands with the parents of prospective pupils, and light the outstretched hand as it went past. After they jumped back, we'd apologise, saying something like 'that keeps happening today - we're not sure why.'
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't delete any photos. Get a copy of The Photographer's Right from http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm [krages.com], and stick it in your camera bag if you're worried. Just because some rentacop has an attitude doesn't mean you need to change your behavior.
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:1, Interesting)
Having lived in both i can say this: Baltimore County cops will harass and intimidate at the drop of a hat. it doesn't take a big loud boom to get their attention. In Baltimore City, I heard gun shots outside my window at least 3-4 nights a week; but never any sirens.
Potato cannon (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:2, Interesting)
In today's age, if I started messing with liquid fuels, or built rockets over 6 feet tall, I would likely get harassed by local law enforcement (or more likely my neighbors would call for them), assuming I could even get the proper permits to be allowed to build the thing... permits to build something with my own two hands and then test it out on my friend's private property (a farm)? CRAZY, and wrong.
While that may draw some odd looks, there is a regulated process by which you can build that kind of thing. Building a six-foot tall rocket is not illegal (I have done it many a time, the largest I have built was a two-stage 11 foot sounding rocket, staging from a K1100T (about 256 times more powerful than a C) to a J1299L (about 128 times more powerful than a C)), and no permits of any kind are required to build it. You do need a certification (or to know someone with a certification) to buy larger propellants, which basically help you to be less of a hazard to others (because presumably if you have a Level 1 or 2 or 3 certification, you know somewhat what you are doing). You do know about the NAR [nar.org], right?
In short, rocketry is not illegal, but you do need to know what you are doing so that you don't kill or injure people people.
Re:Sounds familiar. (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. Challenging their authority will lead to all sorts of pain, and potentially ancillary charges like resisting arrest, if they get creative. I'm glad for the info on the phtographer's rights page -- I read that several years ago, and saved it. I'm quite thankful that some people exercise their photographer's rights; it just won't be me, I think.