CA:San Jose teens accused of throwing chemical bombs at school dance (repeat offenders)

Two teenage boys were arrested after allegedly throwing chemical bombs into the Pioneer High School's homecoming dance and a 16-year-old girl's birthday party, sending three to the hospital Saturday night. Police booked the 16 and 17-year-old boys on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, San Jose police officer Enrique Garcia said.

The teens, according to police reports, first threw a chemical bomb into a crowd at the homecoming dance around 9:50 p.m., Garcia said. No one was injured and the boys ran away.

San Jose Unified School District spokeswoman Karen Fuqua said approximately 700 students were on hand for the dance.

The boys then allegedly went to a home on Glenroy Drive in the Cambrian Park neighborhood, Garcia said. Police believe the pair lobbed a second chemical bomb over a fence and into a crowd of people gathered for a birthday party at around 10:43 p.m., Garcia said.

Three 16-year-old girls were injured badly enough to require a hospital visit. One of them suffered serious to moderate injuries to her hand, face and eye, Garcia said.

As police questioned partygoers and neighbors, Garcia said officers discovered that the two suspects had allegedly made a chemical explosion at a party a year before.

It's unclear what type of chemicals the teens allegedly used to create the explosions. But Garcia said the chemical bombs were delivered in small plastic bottles, similar to bottled water.

It's unclear what type of chemicals the teens allegedly used to create the explosions. But Garcia said the chemical bombs were delivered in small plastic bottles, similar to bottled water.

Kids have been doing this sort of things for as long as there have been plastic soda/water bottles. Around my neighborhood, they use two liter soda bottles. They add two common household ingredients just before twisting on the cap and inserting it into your mail box. The ingredients produce CO₂ and cause the bottle to swell up and ultimately burst with a great deal of vigor. This "prank" has largely replaced the midnight drive-by attack with a baseball bat.

I have decided to quit fighting the "merry pranksters" and just buy the cheapest mailbox that Farm & Fleet sells. All other countermeasures have proved more or less ineffective.

Regards,
GtG

PS In the vein of "kids don't try this at home" be aware that a goodly amount of plastic shrapnel is released upon bursting which can and often does cause injury to the experimenter(s).

I have decided to quit fighting the "merry pranksters" and just buy the cheapest mailbox that Farm & Fleet sells. All other countermeasures have proved more or less ineffective.

After years of losing mailboxes, I carefully unfolded the seams of one of my casualties and used it as a pattern to make a counterfeit mailbox.

...Welded from 1/4" thick 18-nickel maraging steel, like that used in the Space Shuttle Boosters. *Shrug* I found some scrap...

Then, when welded to a 4" Lally Column and lovingly set in the ground, I would every Spring go out and collect the broken baseball bats and even a couple of crowbars that were released form surprised hands. The mailman loved it, and a local hardware store wanted me to make them to order, with different model names, like the "Sherman", "Panzer", etc..

Common sense and a lawyer friend prevailed. I still have mine though. Needs paint once in a while, so I use different colors every few years so each graduating class has to learn for themselves.

Your story reminded me of my youth in northern Wisconsin. It seemed the town snowplow driver "counted coup" on your mailbox to relieve the tedium of all that driving. I had actually seen his tracks cross the centerline to "get" a box that he had missed on the outbound pass. A neighbor tired of the constant busy work of resurrecting the mailbox so come summer he sank a fifty five gallon drum into the shoulder of the road. Into which he placed a railroad "switch" tie (extra long), then filled with concrete and backfilled the ditch to conceal his handy work. He constructed a top "tee" using a shorter tie and added a 45 degree gusset to further reinforce the structure. He added a standard mailbox to the horizontal tee and waited for the first snow fall.

Sure as the turn of the seasons, along about November came the snowplow. The collision was very impressive and destroyed the mailbox but left the supporting structure intact in all it's lag bolted glory. It also wrecked the plow mechanism and near tore the mounting off the truck. The driver was practically in shock but otherwise uninjured. The Town Board got all snippy about the nature of the supporting structure and threatened to bill my neighbor for the truck damages. To which he replied that "if your driver had not driven into the ditch to mash my mailbox, which is a Federal crime, there would have been no "accident"."

As far as I know the structure still stands today.

Regards,
GtG

PS I have found that placing a "snow fence" post about a foot or so to the right of your mailbox will deter most drive-by attacks.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.