Early Sunday afternoon, two citizens strolling through a park in Plantation noticed a couple of strange objects lying the grass. The objects looked like pipe bombs. And they were!
The citizens, fearing that someone might be hurt, picked up the bombs and brought them to the swale in front of the home of a local police officer. They rang the officer's doorbell and informed him of the situation. The officer called in the BSO's bomb squad, the members of which then disabled the pipe bombs -- with a water cannon!
There are a lot of things we've learned from this string of events, like the fact that the cops use water cannons to dispose of pipe bombs. But we also learned that these two good Samaritans made several mistakes with their heroic act. Namely:
1. If you find a bomb, don't pick it up
"Yeah, don't pick it up," says long-suffering Detective Rettig, of Plantation, who sounds a bit tired of stating the obvious. "You want to err on the side of caution. Don't touch it. Stay at a good distance, and call 911."
2. If you find a bomb and you do pick it up, don't bring it to the home of your favorite police officer
"I don't think they'll necessarily appreciate that," says Rettig. While NBC may call you a hero if the bomb doesn't detonate, guess what? if it does detonate, you're not only not a hero -- you're the person who just bombed the home of a police officer.
3. If you find a bomb, and you do pick it up, and you are for some reason en route to the home of your favorite police officer, don't shake the bomb
"Some people will hold it up to their ear and shake it to hear what's inside. Don't do that," says Rettig. "Just... don't do it."
4. If you find a bomb, and you do pick it up, and you do bring it to the swale in front of the home of your favorite police officer -- no worries! You can disable it with a water cannon!
Who knew?
