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This story is winding down, but I think it should be remembered as an interesting object lesson. At first, there were bombs everywhere. Then over time the bombs were revealed as hoaxes (there were three of them) but not until after this:
Students were sent home, businesses were evacuated and large portions of town were cordoned off as local, county and federal authorities investigated. None of the three devices detonated, but some of the five "chemical reaction devices" (authorities called them "MacGyver bombs" after the TV character who improvised explosives) popped while authorities were busy at the first three scenes.
MacGyver bombs? You know, I've never seen that show. I must have been living in the Jungle when it was popular.
Anyway, the MacGuyver bombs are still under investigation but my money is on Coke and Mentos 'devices.'
The Star Tribune is reporting that the police have no suspects, but there are "persons of interest." Now, check out this interesting bit of reporting from the same Strib article:
Princeton High School senior Casey Hanson said his class was told by one teacher that no students were considered suspects. Most students said the school day went as usual Thursday.
So, the regions major newspaper can't find out anything about the "persons of interest" but some teacher "knows" it is not a student. Maybe. It is a small town. The teacher could be the police chief's sibling and this could be for real. However, my money is on a different phenomenon: People's mouths flap open and closed and random shit comes flying out.
Comments
Unless those plastic bottles were filled with caustic chemicals or something intended to act as shrapnel, calling them "bombs" is a bit much. The way plastic bottles come apart (say, when you put dry ice in them and seal them up) isn't perfectly safe, but it's not bad. That's a lousy bomb. Unless we want to start calling overfilled balloons bombs.
Posted by: Stephanie Z | October 2, 2009 10:27 AM
Unless we want to start calling overfilled balloons bombs.
That's the goal. Then people throwing water balloons can be classified as domestic terrorists (who ov course have no legal right)
Posted by: jay | October 2, 2009 12:04 PM
These are clearly Weapons of Mass Destruction. Stephanie, why do you hate America?
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | October 2, 2009 12:05 PM
@StephanieZ: You can make liquid explosives (even gaseous ones). You do not need shrapnel to kill - imagine someone throwing a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse into a crowd. I say fuse so that the titanium casing of a blasting cap can't be invoked as shrapnel. The explosion would shred people and even those further away can suffer fatal internal injuries and without much external sign of injury (few or no bruises). The high pressure gas feels quite solid when it gets to you.
Posted by: MadScientist | October 2, 2009 5:28 PM
You can, of course, MadScientist. However, given the reporting, we'd have heard if these were high explosives.
Posted by: Stephanie Z | October 2, 2009 5:49 PM