Drizzt
Member
Police Blow Up Cannonball, Owner Objects
Monday, September 5, 2005
Yale Metzger wants the Anchorage Police Department to replace his cannonball. Police officers say they blew it up to protect the public.
Metzger said he called police last week to have them examine the cannonball he found in Cordova. Instead, he said, the bomb squad showed up at his home last week with a remote-controlled robot, hauled away the cast iron ball and blew it up.
The police are calling Metzger "an idiot" for carrying the incendiary device around in his truck, then bringing it into downtown Anchorage, where they say it could have sent shrapnel flying for blocks had it exploded.
Metzger, 45, an attorney, found the 4-inch, 8-pound, cast iron ball last summer while excavating property he had purchased. It was unearthed in what most recently was a snow dump.
Metzger put the ball in the back of his pickup, where it rolled around for a year, he said. Over time he began to investigate how a cannonball, a projectile that stopped being used more than a century ago, could have ended up in Cordova.
Once the ball was in Anchorage, Metzger was concerned the ball could be still active. He wanted to know if his cannonball was solid or hollow, and if it was hollow, if it had volatile black powder.
The bomb squad took one look at it in Metzger's garage and treated it like a bomb seconds away from blowing.
"Could it have exploded?" Metzger asked. "Sure. So could a meteor fall out of the sky and hit your truck."
The bomb squad exploded the cannonball at the Anchorage Landfill. Sgt. Jeff Morton said a secondary explosion occurred and a different color of smoke blew out, making it certain that the cannonball had volatile black powder.
Police have not second-guessed their decision to destroy what might have been an artifact.
"We're not going to put a bomb technician's life in jeopardy over a cannonball or anything else," Jennings said. He called Metzger "an idiot" for bringing the bomb into town and for questioning the bomb squad's decision to destroy it.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/05/national/a195558D27.DTL
Monday, September 5, 2005
Yale Metzger wants the Anchorage Police Department to replace his cannonball. Police officers say they blew it up to protect the public.
Metzger said he called police last week to have them examine the cannonball he found in Cordova. Instead, he said, the bomb squad showed up at his home last week with a remote-controlled robot, hauled away the cast iron ball and blew it up.
The police are calling Metzger "an idiot" for carrying the incendiary device around in his truck, then bringing it into downtown Anchorage, where they say it could have sent shrapnel flying for blocks had it exploded.
Metzger, 45, an attorney, found the 4-inch, 8-pound, cast iron ball last summer while excavating property he had purchased. It was unearthed in what most recently was a snow dump.
Metzger put the ball in the back of his pickup, where it rolled around for a year, he said. Over time he began to investigate how a cannonball, a projectile that stopped being used more than a century ago, could have ended up in Cordova.
Once the ball was in Anchorage, Metzger was concerned the ball could be still active. He wanted to know if his cannonball was solid or hollow, and if it was hollow, if it had volatile black powder.
The bomb squad took one look at it in Metzger's garage and treated it like a bomb seconds away from blowing.
"Could it have exploded?" Metzger asked. "Sure. So could a meteor fall out of the sky and hit your truck."
The bomb squad exploded the cannonball at the Anchorage Landfill. Sgt. Jeff Morton said a secondary explosion occurred and a different color of smoke blew out, making it certain that the cannonball had volatile black powder.
Police have not second-guessed their decision to destroy what might have been an artifact.
"We're not going to put a bomb technician's life in jeopardy over a cannonball or anything else," Jennings said. He called Metzger "an idiot" for bringing the bomb into town and for questioning the bomb squad's decision to destroy it.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/05/national/a195558D27.DTL
