Another day, another bomb — and now some arrests

Posted by Mark Chapman on March 9th, 2010 at 5:35 pm

Not sure where I’ve been the past few years, but I seem to have missed a dis­turb­ing trend.

Acid bombs.

When Daniel Thoms’ dog got burned by an acid bomb recently in Olde Engle­wood, I was taken aback.

Acid bombs? What’s up with that?

Well, take a look around the internet.

The day that story rolled across my desk, I saw a news report of acid bombs in Bonita Springs. Then I saw some­thing in some out-of-state media about an acid bomb.

A few days ago, I got a press release from the Char­lotte County Sheriff’s Office about an acid bomb explod­ing in a mail­box in Port Charlotte.

And now, Thurs­day, March 11, I get two e-mails:

The Engle­wood acid bomber who injured the dog has been arrested, a 17-year-old kid who bragged about it to his friends. (See sep­a­rate story.)

Two young teens — 14 and 15 — have been arrested in the Port Char­lotte mail­box bomb­ing. The press release from the Char­lotte County Sheriff’s Office:

“… Detec­tives said the boys used a chem­i­cal and another item to make home­made explo­sive devices in plas­tic bot­tles. They placed one device in a mail­box at 17181 Fal­lkirk Ave.; it did not explode. They then placed a sec­ond bomb in the same mail­box; this time with BB’s act­ing as shrap­nel. This device exploded dam­ag­ing the mail­box and scat­ter­ing BB’s in the box and on the street.

“Accord­ing to detec­tives, the boys learned the process of mak­ing the bombs after research­ing Youtube.com on the inter­net. They pur­chased sup­plies at local stores, made the bombs, and prac­ticed sev­eral times near their home before putting two of them in the mail­box. Schuldt and Hilton were both charged with felony Making/Possessing/Discharging a Destruc­tive Device with Intent to Dam­age Prop­erty. They were trans­ported to the Char­lotte County Jail for book­ing, and then trans­ferred to the Depart­ment of Juve­nile Jus­tice Cen­ter in Fort Myers.

“This inci­dent could have caused seri­ous injury or death if explod­ing in the face of some­one open­ing a mail­box with the bomb inside. These types of home­made bombs have been made and exploded by juve­niles in the past, but detec­tives said this is the first time one was made and exploded with shrap­nel inside. This is not a harm­less prank and should serve as a warn­ing to those who intend on mak­ing such destruc­tive devices.”

So I Googled “acid bomb.” Lo and behold, I got videos of bombs explod­ing — COOL! — and details about how to make them bet­ter, stronger…

I’ve been in this busi­ness a long time, folks. And this isn’t a trend. It is nearly an epidemic.

I’m not sure why, or when it hap­pened, but be aware: This is hap­pen­ing all too frequently.

If you see any­one engag­ing in any activ­ity that looks like it could be a bomb — it usu­ally involves a bot­tle and liq­uid, and often includes alu­minum foil — call the police. Bet­ter safe than sorry. These things are not harmless.

I saw one sta­tis­tic online that said that more than 50 per­cent of the inuries from these things are inflicted on the bombers themselves.

Small com­fort to the lit­tle dog, Char­lie Brown, and his owner.

Keep an eye on your pool chem­i­cals. And your recy­clable bot­tles. And your alu­minum foil.

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