General Cycling Discussion - What will they think of next...

It's amazing what they're doing with bikes now-a-days, isn't it. Good gravy people are stupid!



Four Dakota County boys injured in homemade grenade explosion
Heron Marquez Estrada
Star Tribune
Saturday, August 4, 2001


Four boys were injured Thursday by flying metal after exploding a homemade "grenade" created by stuffing gunpowder into a bicycle frame, Dakota County Sheriff Don Gudmundson said Friday.

A 16-year-old from the Farmington area was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis with arm and hand injuries.

A 12-year-old had a large chunk of muscle torn from his arm, and a 15-year-old had injuries to his body. Both boys were treated at Northfield Hospital, Gudmundson said.

A 14-year-old was treated at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and released after complaining about ringing in his ears, the sheriff said.

The boys, who are neighbors in Castle Rock Township, were at a farm in the 25000 block of Biscayne Av. W. when the explosion occurred.

Gudmundson said they took about 64 ounces of gunpowder from a storage shed at a farm owned by one of their fathers. He said they put it into the bicycle frame to see how far they could make the seat fly.

The explosion blew the frame apart and destroyed the chain and sprocket. The sheriff said the seat flew about 120 feet.

"When the boys placed the bicycle seat onto the bike, they essentially created a pipe bomb," he said. "When the pipe bomb exploded it turned into a ... grenade with multiple pieces of shrapnel."

Investigators are unsure what charges, if any, will be filed. The sheriff said the findings will be presented next week for review by the Dakota County attorney's office.

Must have been disgruntled Wal-Mart bike owners.:(

Does this suggest a potential deterrent to bike theft?

(No, I surely didn't say that...)

there is only one thing that you can say about someone who would actually do that. you can only feel pity for them for having such incredible lack of foresight (did i spell that right?) i mean, come on!! they wanted to see "how far the seat would fly?" man. i would have had an idea like that when i was but a wee lad of 16, but i never would have been dumb enough to act upon it. i would have just thrown the bike off a roof to satisfy my desire for destruction, not created a bomb. allthough i did make a tennis ball bomb one time, but that is another story all together.

the morons probably got the idea off of the internet.

**64 ounces of gunpowder!!**that's four pounds of the stuff for all the math wizards out there. just stupid.

stupidity like that that causes harm to someone makes my blood pressure rise.

idiots.

Wow, im glad nobody was killed. I knew a kid in Jr High that lost his left arm from a pipe bomb... very sad.

Kinda odd that the sheriff commented on the distance the seet flew... hah "The sheriff said the seat flew about 120 feet."

They're just idiots. I think of it as a possible mechanism for natural selection.


Originally posted by JonR
Does this suggest a potential deterrent to bike theft?


I've got an answer to that problem. Just attach a pad-lock to each one of your spokes. It won't actually stop them stealing your bike, but when the spokes break, we all know what happens to bike handling :crash:

Chris

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
Kinda odd that the sheriff commented on the distance the seet flew... hah "The sheriff said the seat flew about 120 feet."

I found that very amusing. I mean, the little idiot children wanted to know how far it would fly, so why not inform the general public as well? Besides, now that the question is answered, maybe the experiment can be considered compleated, and need not be recreated.

Originally posted by LightBoy

...now that the question is answered, maybe the experiment can be considered compleated, and need not be recreated.
OR,, more likely, now other children can compete to try and outdo the previous distance record. Eventually, it could be a popular "reality TV" show with cash prizes, ostracism for least competent assemblers, etc.

4-pounds of bullet powder? a 270 rifle only has a few ounces and it can blast a leg off at 200 yards. Sheesh

I wonder if anybody bothered to question where the kids obtained so much gunpowder in the first place......

you know, after my initial rage, i did manage to laugh at the 120 feet thing. i can see the sheriff here in town chewing on his grass stem, talking out of the side of his mouth. man. funny stuff.

Originally posted by LightBoy
A 14-year-old was treated at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and released after complaining about ringing in his ears, the sheriff said.

Burnsville huh? The forefathers of the town are proud!

Sounds like Darwins theory hard at work.

Originally posted by Greg
Originally posted by LightBoy
A 14-year-old was treated at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and released after complaining about ringing in his ears, the sheriff said.

Burnsville huh? The forefathers of the town are proud!

Sounds like Darwins theory hard at work.


They can rename the town Detonatesville. ;)

This is natural selection at work. At least, in this case, the statistical weakest links didn't succeed in voting off a smart bystander.

G' Bye

Jonathan

Not to suggest this was entirely preventable, but I wonder if we might be motivated by this incident to ask ourselves, "who is our child playing with today?"

:confused:

Yet as a parent, I do not pass judgement, as I know the pain of the parents is hard to bear.

That's true, but let's face it, there are some parents out there who just don't give a sh*t until it's too late. I mean, it wasn't so long ago that I was just a pesky little kid, but I never got into the crap these kids are getting into.

Chris