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Grex > Agora46 > #192: Just like in the (B Grade) movies -- Pizza Delivery Man Blown Up | |
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mcnally
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Just like in the (B Grade) movies -- Pizza Delivery Man Blown Up
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Sep 1 10:34 UTC 2003 |
As if there weren't already plenty of reasons to be glad you're not
delivering pizza..
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/01/national/01ERIE.html
Synopsis: police are investigating the death of a pizza
deliveryman who robbed a bank in Erie, PA. When police stopped
him not far from the crime he claimed he was instructed to rob the
bank by a man who had forced him to wear a bomb. Apparently he
wasn't joking -- shortly after the police cornered him the bomb
exploded and he was killed.
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| 61 responses total. |
russ
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response 1 of 61:
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Sep 1 16:01 UTC 2003 |
Tom Smith is going to have to re-do "Domino Death" now.
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slynne
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response 2 of 61:
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Sep 1 19:13 UTC 2003 |
Wow. I wonder if he put the bomb there and it went off accidently or if
he was telling the truth.
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bru
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response 3 of 61:
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Sep 1 23:49 UTC 2003 |
Thats what the police want to know as well. They are also investigating the
death of another employee at teh same pizza place yesterday. The FBI is
involved.
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tod
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response 4 of 61:
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Sep 2 16:44 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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bru
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response 5 of 61:
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Sep 2 17:14 UTC 2003 |
it must have been a small bomb. I am surprised they did not do more than they
did to save him. I suppose it comes from following preceedure, which calls
for the bomb squad to handle all bombs.
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gelinas
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response 6 of 61:
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Sep 2 17:36 UTC 2003 |
The story I read said the bomb squad was on the way.
I've known a few Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) people. I would NOT
attempt their job without training. Really. James Bond screwing out
the fuze of an atomic bomb looks good on film, but I wouldn't try it in
real life.
It's not a matter of "following procedure"; it's a matter of knowing
your limitations.
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happyboy
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response 7 of 61:
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Sep 2 18:32 UTC 2003 |
re5: what would YOU have done?
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tod
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response 8 of 61:
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Sep 2 18:37 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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bru
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response 9 of 61:
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Sep 2 19:42 UTC 2003 |
epends on the circumstance. If it was a small bomb with a known detonation
time, I would have tried to either let him remove it or tried to put something
between him and the bomb.
If it was a large bomb, I would have told him to sit and wait for the bomb
squad.
It did not seem logical to me to hand cuff him, make him sit down, and wait
for a bomb squad that might or might not get there in time.
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tod
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response 10 of 61:
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Sep 2 20:02 UTC 2003 |
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rcurl
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response 11 of 61:
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Sep 2 21:06 UTC 2003 |
Bolt cutter?
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jmsaul
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response 12 of 61:
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Sep 2 22:31 UTC 2003 |
I've seen a photo of the thing. Might have been hard. Oddly enough, the
collar survived (or at least part of it did).
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tod
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response 13 of 61:
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Sep 2 22:58 UTC 2003 |
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jmsaul
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response 14 of 61:
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Sep 2 23:02 UTC 2003 |
That, plus the way the thing was built was weird. Layers of metal with space
between them. I can't find the photo I saw before, but they're circulating
it.
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tod
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response 15 of 61:
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Sep 2 23:25 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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bru
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response 16 of 61:
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Sep 3 00:57 UTC 2003 |
Wow. Very much like a handcuff. They would have had to use a hacksaw or
diamond chain to cut thru the hinge if it was truely hardened steel. Still,
if I knew he had a bomb and about how much time he had, I might offer him the
chance to remove it knowing what I did might set it off. Particularly if the
bomb squad was still to far away.
There again, I still don't havea clear picture of how it was constructed and
what methods could be used to seperate him from the explosive.
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jmsaul
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response 17 of 61:
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Sep 3 02:49 UTC 2003 |
I don't either, especially given how much of the collar seems to have survived
intact. The charge might have been pretty small. I'd hate to second-guess
the people on the scene, though: his story wasn't believable, and he might
have detonated the explosives while they were trying to help him. I noticed
they leaned him up against the front of a squad car -- how much you wanna bet
that the back of that car was facing everyone else, and it was pretty far
away.
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rcurl
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response 18 of 61:
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Sep 3 05:51 UTC 2003 |
I finally saw the gadget on TV news, and certainly a bolt cutter would not
work. It looked complicated, and not anything I recognized as standard issue.
It must have taken some time to make. We still don't know how it worked,
however.
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tod
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response 19 of 61:
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Sep 3 17:21 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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scott
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response 20 of 61:
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Sep 4 14:44 UTC 2003 |
If it was just sheet metal then it would be easy enough to see if there was
a booby-trap on the collar.
Something like a Dremel tool with an abrasive wheel would have worked,
assuming no vibration issues with the bomb. Ard apparently the bomb was quite
small; it was reported to have created a "postage-stamp sized hole" in the
man's chest.
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tod
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response 21 of 61:
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Sep 4 18:44 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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scott
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response 22 of 61:
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Sep 4 18:45 UTC 2003 |
Wouldn't take as much space as bolt-cutters, and I bet a lot of cop cars have
a pair of bolt-cutters in the trunk.
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russ
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response 23 of 61:
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Sep 5 02:30 UTC 2003 |
How often do cops need to cut bomb-collars off of people?
What really bugs me about this is that the cops did not appear to
have made any attempt to protect that poor guy from the bomb.
They could have given him a heavy coat or something to stuff
under the collar, between himself and the bomb. (They wouldn't
have had to stand nearby while he crammed it in.) They could have
called an ambulance to stand by to render aid if the bomb went
off before the bomb squad got there. They might even have let
the guy lie in the trunk of a cruiser while they drove the victim
to the bomb squad.
None of that was done, the guy died from a wound that might have
been prevented with some thick padding, and the best clue as to
the identity of the bomb-maker was lost. Lousy police work!
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scott
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response 24 of 61:
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Sep 5 04:17 UTC 2003 |
Nah, they'll be able to find the marker stuff in the wound, and track down
the source, assuming it's a commercial explosive.
But I agree on letting the guy the stuff something around the explosive. That
was sloppy indeed.
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