Bomb squad detonates suspicious turnip
The Fort Wayne Police Department bomb squad sent a robot to retrieve a cardboard box in the parking lot of a law office. They blew the box up, and found a turnip inside.
But the turnip doesn't look like it was hurt too badly, and I'm afraid it might rise up and attack us again. Please report any suspicious turnips to Homeland Security. Link (Thanks, zauberkuh!)
Hot update: Andrew Welfle, who works next door, got photos of the bomb squad and their robot doing their thing in the parking lot. (Thanks, Andy!)
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During the early 90s I was present for a bomb scare in England. Someone found a big unmarked cardboard box in a busy pedestrianised road. At that time the IRA had an unpleasant habit of actually blowing stuff in England, so the bomb squad got there sharpish for a controlled detonation.
...which showered the street with fragments of cheap nappies (diapers). Oh well, at least they were clean.
There are easier ways to mash a turnip!
Turnips fill me with explosive gasses!
Love the writeup.
They "blew the box up"!?
It looks like one edge was torn part ways down.
They're hyper-competent, those Ft. Wayne bomb squad guys!
Or is that just the fancy evidence container, a used cardboard box?
Hey, it's not like the bomb-droid gets used a lot in this town, we needed the practice?
Oh:
LEFT GUARD: You must have saved up a bundle by now, huh?
RIGHT GUARD: That I have, mate. That I have.
LEFT GUARD: Well you must be savin' up for a reason, eh?
RIGHT GUARD: Yup, yup. I've had my eye on a turnip for quite a while now.
LEFT GUARD: A TURNIP!?
RIGHT GUARD: Well not just any turnip! The world's biggest turnip!
LEFT GUARD: So then what? Turnip soup for everyone?
RIGHT GUARD: No! You don't just EAT the biggest turnip in the world!
LEFT GUARD: Uh, so... do you make a wish on in?
RIGHT GUARD: [pause] Now that's just plain silly.
Myth II: Soulblighter
http://myth.bungie.org/legends/fieldguide/fs04_breach.html
They "blew the box up"!?
It looks like one edge was torn part ways down.
They're hyper-competent, those Ft. Wayne bomb squad guys!
Or is that just the fancy evidence container, a used cardboard box?
Haha, I work in the building next door to the building with the bomb threat, and they sent in a little robot to retrieve the "suspicious package."
Check out the photos I took from our office window:
http://indiana.typepad.com/fwob/2008/03/fwob-exclusive.html
cool photos! I want a Gort costume like that one.
Soon enough, people will be packing boxes with feces. A really big version of the flaming bag of dogshit on the porch routine.
@Takuan: You're right! That's what I was thinking as I was watching that guy detonate the box -- "wouldn't it be funny if that was a box of dog poop?"
That building is a lawyer's office, so I'm sure there were plenty of reasons to mail them a turnip! :-P
@Michaelk: I'm going to get me a nice turnip in the country.
@Michaelk: I'm going to get me a nice turnip in the country.
and now for a totally different take on the same event- ACME/Loony-toons pictures presents:
invasion of the turnip snatchers/war of the worlds/Marvin walks his rover
http://x-wire.blogspot.com/2008/03/marvin-martian-rover-invade-downtown.html
giggle!
Can somebody please enlighten me...
Whenever a suspicious device is found, the bomb squad always "detonate" it, whether it's an LED light-brite or a cardboard box with a turnip in it.
Now, according to the Oxford dictionary, "detonate" means "explode or cause to explode", so what, exactly, do they do?
Now, surely if you have a bomb, the last thing you want to do is make it blow up.
If you look up bomb disposal on Wikipedia, the entire emphasis of the practice does indeed appear to be preventing it from blowing up, so why do the bomb disposal guys always "detonate" it?
I am very confused :-/
"When officers arrived, Joyner said, they determined the box was indeed suspicious,"
I guess "suspicious" is in the eye of the beholder, whether it's a cardboard box, a beard, or a LED advertisement.
I can imagine that conversation: "so officer, doesn't this box look 'suspicious'?"
"Hmmm, yeah, it is kinda weird huh? Let's blow it up!"
"COOL!"
Well, from the other local paper, the law office had received strange things from this disgruntled individual before:
"So when GiaQuinta's legal assistant called him to say a box had come from the man, GiaQuinta said he was nervous about having her open it. “He told her to call the police because the guy's a psycho,” said Leroy Williams, the firm's office manager."
Which led to:
"At 5:59 p.m., Rob [the robot] opened fire with a 12-guage shotgun blast, then sprayed the box with a water cannon. “That's a hell of a turnip,” Joyner said as he inspected the drenched and bullet-damaged vegetable after Rob had done his duty."
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/SE/20080314/NEWS/803140326
I think really the point of EOD is having the possible device blow up where it will do the least harm, if it's going to blow up at all, while moving it as little as possible.
And yes, that story had THE MOST AWESOME LEAD EVER.
"What began as a financial dispute over a foreclosure on a horse farm ended with a robot shooting a turnip Thursday afternoon."
Looks like they should start making Body Armour out of Turnips.
re: blowin up bombs real good (yeah, real good)
generally - certainly not always - a "device" has a fuse/timer/detonator/triggering device that sets off the main charge. The purpose of the shotgun or water blast is to "disrupt" these elements before they can trigger the main charge. Sometimes everything goes boom anyway. Many times, however, a small deliberate explosion does effectively mess up the functioning of the bomb so the main charge does NOT go off.
Excellent use of your tax dollars, people.
@Padster123: You might want to look at the article I linked to.
Oh, come on. Ever since they got that expensive moonsuit and bomb-robot, they've been dying for a chance to try them out.
Besides, as MichaelK pointed out, "What began as a financial dispute over a foreclosure on a horse farm ended with a robot shooting a turnip Thursday afternoon" is an awesome lead.
Yeah, Fort Wayne is definitely where the terrorists will strike first.