From the Smoking Gun
What the fuck? Luckily, no one was injured.
I really don’t get idiots like this.
I’m glad they were caught now, before they became a bunch of McVeighs.
Throw the book at them
No, we can’t throw the book at them. They’re just kids.
Won’t anyone think of the children?
If someone could help me come up with some more lame-o excuses that we’ll be seeing later I’d be indebted.
Oops. That was a hell of a coding error. :smack:
What I said was I’d appreciate it if anyone could help me come up with some more lame-o excuses so we can preempt the moron “They’re just kids” contingent.
I’m usually in the “moron ‘They’re just kids’ contingent”, but in this case I’m in the “I can calculate their ages by looking at their DOBs in the police report” contingent. They aren’t kids. The youngest is 19. 19 year olds that do stupid shit can pay for it.
Didn’t it say two of them were in the military? If anyone should appreciate things that go bang, it should be them.
Say, Airman, since two of the “cute kids” are in the military, what would be the worse thing their CO can do to them (assuming he/she can)?
Are you kidding? Attempted murder carries a long prison sentence in lovely Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
What a happy place, jail must be. 2 of the 3 are smiling in their booking photos.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but the thing that bothers me the most about this story is that everybody’s calling it an “acid bomb.”
Drain cleaner and aluminum foil, kids. More specifically: Sodium hydroxide and aluminum foil. It’s a strong base for crying out loud.
Don’t call it an “acid bomb.” Call it a “chemical bomb” if you want something appropriately scary sounding.
Sheesh.
I guess the court will have to prove they set out to kill someone as opposed just causing serious physical damage to the restaurant.
Either way, do they still have guys breaking rocks with sledgehammers in Leavenworth? These guys look like they could stand to break 5 or 6 hundred thousand.
This is nothing like “attempted murder,” though. We’re not talking high explosives. What happens is an exothermic chemical reaction which produces a slow buildup of pressure. Because there’s a certain amount of heat involved, the bottle expands to accomodate the pressure quite a bit before it finally bursts, spraying the contents of the bottle around. We’re talking about a tablespoon of lye diluted by 1500ml of water, and largely neutralized by its reaction with the Al. You don’t want to get it in your eyes or on your baby, but it’s not going to kill anybody.
That’s not to excuse the little fuckwits, of course. It’s possible somebody could have found it and picked it up, getting soaked with nasty chemicals. Not life-threatening, but unpleasant and possibly painful.
Ah, grinning mugshots. Apparently those kids are stupid enough not to realize that they’re in deep doo-doo.
Dumb kids – don’t they know tinfoil is for making hats, not bombs?
Well, someone had to say it.
They should be sentanced to eating at Micky Ds every day for the rest of their lives. They’ll pork up so much that they won’t ever be able to even bend over without breaking a sweat and panting.
And then force them to wear army boots.* Ha ha ha ha!
- because they will have to bend over to lace them up, you see.
Only on the Straight Dope would someone come along to point this out.
sniff God I love this place…
Yeah, there’s something wrong with you all right. The police report says TOILET BOWL CLEANER, not drain cleaner. Such TOILET BOWL CLEANERS are made with hydrochloric ACID, not sodium hydroxide. That would make it an ACID bomb.
There. Ignorance fought; not sure what I can do about the illiteracy, though.
They’re probably being tickled.
Actually, I think most are Sodium Hypochlorite. Some are acid, but most are not-to my knowledge.
Sam
Someone set them up the base bomb.
And all of this was over a milkshake? It’s amazing the stupid things people will do over food they consider gross.
Reminds me of an episode of People’s Court way back in the days of Wapner. Two guys, maybe around 19 years old, were suing a convenience store owner for $5000. They had purchased a candy bar to split between the two of them. It was infested with maggots. When they ate it (which was after they noticed the maggots), they were “really grossed out.” They incurred no hospital bills, they didn’t even go see a doctor, but they were still grossed out, hence $5000 for pain and suffering. Judge Wapner found in their favor.
He awarded them fifty cents – the cost of the candy bar.