Bend police find 'bomb' is just paintball prop

[Harry Tuttle]

Bend police find 'bomb' is just paintball prop
Neighbors warned at first, then given all clear
http://www.ktvz.com/story.cfm?nav=news&storyID=10257
Posted: 5:39 PM, Apr. 27, 2006

By Barney Lerten, KTVZ.com

A construction worker in northeast Bend found what he thought could be a homemade bomb in a garage Thursday morning and called police, who thought so too, and warned neighbors to stay indoors. But they soon learned from a resident that it was just a prop used during paintball games.

Shortly after 11 a.m., the construction worker in the area of Parkview Court contacted officers to report the possible explosive device in the garage of 1068 NE Parkview Ct., said Sgt. Todd Fletcher.

Police responded, located the "suspicious device" and secured the area, determining that the packaged "appeared to be a homemade explosive device," Fletcher wrote in a news release.

Nearby residents were advised and told to stay in their homes until further information was developed, Fletcher said.

A resident at the home, Joseph Height, was contacted and told police the device was a prop used during paintball scenarios, Fletcher said. The resident advised he was part of a paintball group that uses such props during its activities.

The neighbors then were told the device was not active and not a danger to the public. Height voluntarily surrendered the device to police, who will retain it for use as a training tool, Fletcher said.

 

[Manedwolf]

The neighbors then were told the device was not active and not a danger to the public. Height voluntarily surrendered the device to police, who will retain it for use as a training tool, Fletcher said.

If it's a "paintball grenade", ten to one that "training" involves it going off in someone's cruiser or under their desk as a joke.

 

[ID_shooting]

"The neighbors then were told the device was not active..."

Perhaps "The neighbors then were told the device was not a bomb but instead a toy..." would have been better. Nothing like leaving a few details out to not make your team look like they over reacted.

 

[zahc]

It doesn't sound like the police overreacted. At least they didn't break into his home, or burn it down, or kill anyone.

If anyone overreacted it's the busybody construction worker who called the cops. If the cops get a call, they have to respond.

 

[walking arsenal]

The cops responded like they were trained to respond. They did alright considering they didnt know if it was real or not, better safe than sorry.


Cool that the guy let them use it for training.

I'd fire the construction worker.

 

[Henry Bowman]

It doesn't sound like the police overreacted. At least they didn't break into his home, or burn it down, or kill anyone.

Pretty sad when that has become our standard.

 

[CypherNinja]

If it's a "paintball grenade", ten to one that "training" involves it going off in someone's cruiser or under their desk as a joke.

LOL, but I was picturing a fake-C4/playdough + alarm clock type of thing.

Probably for use in Counterstrike style "disarm the bomb" scenarios.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Height voluntarily surrendered the device to police, who will retain it for use as a training tool,

Why in the hell would he allow his private property, legally obtained and owned, to be taken from him by law enforcement?

It's guys like this that make the fight more difficult.

When "the man" comes you just surrender and go away quietly..... nice

 

[Henry Bowman]

Wonder what it looked like?

 

[Car Knocker]

Perhaps the cops just said "Hey, man, could you let us have this thing so that when we get a call again for something like this, the responding officers will know it's just a toy and it'll save everyone a big hassle?"

And the guy said "Sure."

You're right, it's just to horrible to contemplate - a citizen cooperating with the cops!

 

[TexasRifleman]

You're right, it's just to horrible to contemplate - a citizen cooperating with the cops!

Oh gosh.... I don't know. Maybe it's because I own a dictionary.

The story used the word "surrendered". That's not normally a co-operative word.

But hey, who am I to use the English language to interpret things, God forbid

Surrender:

To relinquish possession or control of to another because of demand or compulsion.

 

[Car Knocker]

Voluntary: done, made, brought about, or undertaken of one's own accord or by free choice. acting or done without compulsion.

Surrender: to give up, abandon or relinquish.

 

[Jeff White]

You would not believe how much ordnance is out there in private hands. Soldiers returning from the two world wars and Korea and even the early days of the Vietnam war were not checked for explosives they might have decided to bring home for a keepsake as well as they could have been.

Until the early 1980s the military didn't keep the best accountabilty of training ammunition. Many times after a unit drew ammunition the ASP wouldn't take it back or the unit logisitc types were too lazy to go through the hassle of getting it ready to turn back in, so ammunition that wasn't expended was often buried or dumped in a lake or pond on post. It was very easy for people to pilfer this and take it home with them.

I know a guy who was on the Illinois Secretary of State Police's bomb squad. He told me in back in 2000 that they were making 4 to 6 XUO runs a week to homes of WWII vets who had passed on and the family had discovered handgrenades and other ordnance when going through the house.

You have to take all bomb calls seriously.

Jeff

 

[Crosshair]

Did the bomb look like this???

/Loves Counterstrike

 

[Destructo6]

"a prop" would be something made to look like the real thing, eh?

 

[Working Man]

Here is a link...

http://www.specialopspaintball.com/shop/category.asp?CAT=114202

It was probably one of these.

 

[Erebus]

It probably looked like this

or this

Neither of which looks authentic. Plastic with bright colors. Maybe the top one but it still looks very plastic.

 

[Zero_DgZ]

Mannedwolf: If it's a "paintball grenade", ten to one that "training" involves it going off in someone's cruiser or under their desk as a joke.

Nah, we use those things all the time in airsoft. The trouble is, if the thing actually 'goes off' somehow by spraying paint/BB's when the timer hits zero it becomes expensive and it has to be rebuilt and/or reloaded every match. Usually it's just something that looks nice but has an alarm clock hooked up to a screamer of some sort that just makes a bunch of racket when the countdown gets to zero. That usually signifies the end of the game.

Anyway, I have a friend who runs a little bookstore/comic book shop sort of thing in a strip mall who got in trouble for something like this once. He didn't have a clock in the store but had a bunch of odds and ends up on display on top of the bookshelves like big action figures and props and stuff. So one day he went across the street to the hardware store and bought himself seven road flares and a length of telephone handset coily-cord, then bundled up the flares and lashed an alarm clock to them with the cord. You know, your classic cartoon/movie prop time bomb sort of thing. He stuck it up on the shelf with the rest of the bric-a-brac and it serves as the store's clock to this day.

Well, with one minor speed bump in that road. One day apparently some soccer mom thought the clock was in poor taste and complained to somebody. So next thing you know, the cops storm his store and sieze the clock and then charge him with something relating to bringing an explosive device or a threatening lookalike within 500 feet of a bank. Of course, there was a bank at the other end of the strip mall.

Apparently he fought it and won by demonstrating (probably something to do with the layer of dust on the shelf with a bomb-shaped clean spot in the middle) that the thing had served as a clock for several years, was built in the store, and had never left the place save for the cops grabbing it.

 

[Harry Tuttle]

We have assembled props for various scenario events

The MPs at the MOUT facility we played at did not like how authentic our plasticine C4 bricks looked with pigtailed wires and a timer

we also have a rather large stash of red painted dowel rods bundled with electrical tape

The error the guy from Bend made was not storing his props in a closed locked box