Kids and chemicals don't mix!

[Pat Garaffa]

Now I have to worry about stray soda bottles too!  

I would avoid showing this to your kids.  It's too easy to reproduce and sometimes a little knowledge can be just as bad as good.  Let them know it exists but I wouldn't tell them the simple ingredients.  

There is a video on the snopes site.  Watch how this simple bomb can be made and how innocent it looks.  

Apparently, they make the bomb and leave it gently on your lawn/mailbox, etc.  Then you pick it up and toss it into the recycling bin.  The slight mixing of the chemicals is enough to make a mess of your recycling containers.  Or worse - you!

It could also be made, mixed and stuck inside of a mailbox.  The video shows that it takes about 40 seconds to explode so they could be half a mile away before your mailbox ends up on your roof. 

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/bottlebomb.asp

[Pat Garaffa]

And in another local incident. 

My daughter has friends on the same street and she was told the kids were fooling around with a paintball Co2 cartridge but the article never mentions it. 

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100827109

2 Howell boys hurt in gasoline container explosion

By BILL BOWMAN • STAFF WRITER • August 27, 2010

HOWELL — Two local boys were injured Friday when they ignited a five-gallon tank of gasoline, causing it to explode in front of them, police said.

The two, a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old, were treated at the scene and then air-lifted to the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, for further treatment, police said in a prepared release.

The explosion reported at about 5:30 p.m. occurred in the backyard of a home at 435 Peter Forman Drive, police said.

Police said the two boys, whose names were not released, lit the tank with a lighter. The container exploded, resulting in severe burns to the two on their extremities and abdomens, according to the release.

There was no information on the condition of the two youths.

In addition to township police, other responding agencies were the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, the county fire marshal, Adelphia Fire Department, Howell EMS, Howell/Farmingdale First Aid Squad, MONOC and State Police, according to the release.

Township Patrolman Jack Headley and Detective Nancy Carroll.

[Jackie Everitt]

Pat - Thanks for this info - I would think nothing of picking up a bottle laying on the ground to throw it out - now I know better: If it is capped I am not touching it and I will also pass this on to the little ones but only tell them that if they see a bottle with a cap on it don't do what mommy used to tell you to do; only pick up the ones without caps.

As far as the two boys with the gasoline I am still trying to get a grip on that one - but I guess it comes down to kids thinking nothing will ever happen to them.  When I read the headline I thought I was going to find out they were filling a lawn mower or go-kart something like that - As stupid as I was as a teenager sometimes atleast I knew better then to try to lit gasoline with a lighter - I wouldn't even use a lighter for a charcoal grill with lighter fluid.

[Pat Garaffa]

Jackie,

I am still amazed that I made it this far in life.   I did lots of dumb and very dangerous things when I was a kid.  And that includes getting hit by a car not once - but twice!  I guess I just had an angel in my back pocket. 

I wouldn't go crazy with fear over the soda bottle problem.  Our police are already busy and they don't need more stuff to worry about.  I would just take a look (from a distance) if you see one on the ground.  If there is a piece of foil inside then I would make the call.  Otherwise it's just another slob who couldn't find a garbage can. 

And obviously - if it's jammed inside your mailbox then you have reason to worry.  And a bigger reason to run!   

What a crazy world we live in. 

[Jackie Everitt]

Pat - for me I would do that (check to see if there's alum. foil in it or if it looks funny) but I do worry with the kid's - I try not only to teach them not to throw things around but also to pick up things when they are on the ground - But they are old enough to understand - if it has a cap leave; Mommy or Daddy will decide if it should be touched. 

I don't know why I'm surprised -This is actually safer when you think about it - we would put M-80's (not me I was always a chicken but friends while I was there) in garbage cans to blow the lids off and if you put a couple in the can apart or add a long fuse to a pack of firecrackers; put them on someone's porch or walk by the door; ring the bell; light the fuse and run - I won't go on with anymore so I don't give anyone ideas I guess I'm just getting old and my response to things like this is OMG :  plus we never used chemicals - other then the gun powder in firecrackers.

[Ginger_Hoffmeier]

I pick up ten or twenty or thirty bottles up every week, some partially full of something. They get tossed into the woods and weeds. The ones I miss get chewed up by the lawn mower (along with the weekly newspapers that seldom land anywhere near the driveway.)

I'm sure these are the work of some of Howell's mislead youth and young adults with too much time on their hands. Can they be charged with terrorism even if they aren't Muslim?

How long will it be before homeowners are required to install security cameras?

[Kathy_Baratta]

Can they be charged with terrorism even if they aren't Muslim?

Ginger,

I don't even know how to approach the above. I'll start with what does it mean? Are you saying that all terrorists are Muslim or all Muslims are terrorists or that you have to be a Muslim in order to be considered a terrorist?

KB

[Ginger_Hoffmeier]

I was just mulling over our reactions to various events, KB, but now that you mention it, option number three seems to fit.

Now when anyone hears an explosion there is a "Henny Penny" reaction -- Run! The terrorists are coming! When the word "terrorist" comes up it almost always refers to Muslims, not members of the Mosad, Aryan Brotherhood, M13, Bloods, or even the IRA. This might be one of the ways 9/11 molded our thinking.

In the days of Michael Collins I'm sure the English had this same reaction towards Irish Catholics. When a building caught fire the thought of Irish terrorists probably popped into their minds -- not that wee Johnny and Jake were probably smoking again in the back of the stable.

I do wonder if a bottle bomb was tossed out a car window by a couple of Muslims would it be handled differently than if a couple of high school kids did the same thing? And while I'm pondering this, should we prosecute a crime regardless of who perpetrates it or should the criminal's beliefs and background be taken into consideration?

Justice may be blind, but I think she may be peeking a bit under that blindfold.

[Kathy_Baratta]

For me, one of the worst, knee-jerk, pandering piece of legislation ever passed was the "hate crime" law.

A crime is a crime, is a crime, is a crime. Whether or not the victim was the member of any particular ethnicity, race or religion does not mitigate the crime so why should the idea of bias even be conflated into any charges anyway? 

We have laws on the books against murder and mayhem. Enforce them with the same rigor and as far as I am concerned, justice is then served without the added "theater."

KB