Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/28/florida-fisherman-reels-in-liv.html
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Florida, you say?
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Where else would you bring it? Surely not Arby’s.
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A Florida pineapple.
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Florida, I know, but I’m wondering if this guy has a cell phone or if it only dawned on him how dangerous the situation was when he got to Taco Bell.
I really just wonder how it ended up where he found it, and where that was. Ocala is about 40 miles inland from the gulf but there seem to be plenty of lakes that he could have been “fishing.”
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Is it standard procedure to not move it once it has been notified?
The guy got it to a Taco Bell. Surely he could have taken it outside of a Taco Bell - no evacuation required.
How may people were denied tacos by this insensitive gesture?
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additionally "and made a run for the border. As one does. " doesn’t compute. Or are Taco Bells extraterritorial?
Considering that Taco Bell is a well known place to go drop a bomb this guy’s course of action is completely understandable.
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Very old Taco Bell marketing slogan. Would have been more appropriate to say he decided to “live mas.”
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Yes. General rule is you don’t touch or move unexploded ordinance. The bomb squad definitely told him not to move it.
Some would say he was lucky to get it to Taco Bell. Presumably he didn’t know what he had until he got there.
Probably not that many. There are 3 other Taco Bells in Ocala, including one 5 miles down the road.
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Maybe he takes his bucket of mud encrusted metal crap to a fast food joint so he can eat while he cleans the gunk off and figures out what he’s found. Maybe midway through using an old toothbrush on the grenade, he thought “Oh shit,” put down his taco, and pulled out his phone to call 911.
Although you’d think the restaurant would prefer that he do this very messy activity at one of their outside dining tables rather than indoors. (turns out the grenade never left the bed of his pickup in the parking lot, thanks @agies).
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This is what I figure happened.
Re-reading the article it seems he never took it out of his trunk. Probably was cleaning it there.
The FB post by the police indicates that he was “fishing” in Ocklawaha which leads me to believe it was found in Lake Weir. Still wonder how a live grenade ended up there.
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My uncle once found an unfired 20mm cartridge in his vegetable garden. He also assumed that it was a dummy at first. ISTR that it was a non-explosive training round, but that there was still enough propellant in there to maim one.
There are warning signs at the entrances to the Dolly Sods wilderness in WV because there are still some mortar shells there from training exercises conducted there during WWII.
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Usually only one has to worry about blowing up the bathroom at Taco Bell…
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I walk my dog on dual use land military/civilian and there are little flags to pick up and use to mark unexploded ordinance.
They try and make it pretty simple to understand. Every time I see the “do not pick up bombs” graphic, I think to myself “Ya, that is pretty good advice.”
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Right? They’ve “got the meat”. Whereas when I think explosive, I think Taco Bell.
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Insert explosive diarrhea joke here.
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Tagline from the days when we could make a passing reference to the US/Mexican border without devolving into a xenophobic diatribe on drug dealers and rapists.
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Ocala is landlocked. It is surrounded by horse ranches (or used to be). Why would someone bother searching for salvage in a small lake? Even by Florida standards this is absurd. And absurdity has some seriously high standards around there
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