As some of you know, the wife and I purchased a house back in the summer. Practically the whole place has been gutted and is still in the process of being remodeled.
Well, a couple weeks ago I was taking out some old lumber that was stacked up on some bracing between the floor joists in the basement. I removed one board, and saw behind it, a cylindrical tube that looked like a big log of sausage. It was in a white wrapper, kind of unmarked like deer sausage comes in.
I had a weird feeling about it because it seemed as if it were purposely hidden behind the board. I guess my inner-police officer took over because I ended up getting up in there with a flashlight looking over the thing to see if I could see any writing on it, all bomb-technician style, making sure not to touch it in case it was "sweating" in the way TNT is rumored to do, I didnt want to set it off or anything.
Well, I couldnt see any writing on it, so I kind of convinced myself "Quit being such a pussy and take it down, it's probably just some nasty old deer sausage."
So I did, and sure as sh*t, the label on the under-side that I couldn't see read "HYDROMITE EXPLOSIVE AGENT" I nearly shat myself right there as it lay upon my work bench.
Ended up calling the cops and some local city cop, not any older than I am showed up, didn't know WTF it was and said "I think this is what most people call "Gun Powder""
I said, "Well, typically gun powder doesnt come in a tube as an emulsion from what I know, but you're the cop"
He ended up copying down all the info from the label and calling the highway patrol, because neither my city or county have a bomb squad (nice knowing that).
The Highway patrol bomb guys showed about an hour or so later and took the stuff out of there, said I did the right thing by calling, etc. They were pretty cool and decided to take the stuff down to the local quarry and detonate it. They didnt ask much about the circumstances in which I found it, but did manage to find out who owned the house before me, so Im not sure if they're trying to find out anything else or not. They really didnt seem to concerned.
The really scary part is that I have soldered copper with a torch not 5 feet from where the explosives were hidden. AND it was directly under where our bed is in the basement.
...buy a house from rednecks, and expect redneck sh*t.
Well, a couple weeks ago I was taking out some old lumber that was stacked up on some bracing between the floor joists in the basement. I removed one board, and saw behind it, a cylindrical tube that looked like a big log of sausage. It was in a white wrapper, kind of unmarked like deer sausage comes in.
I had a weird feeling about it because it seemed as if it were purposely hidden behind the board. I guess my inner-police officer took over because I ended up getting up in there with a flashlight looking over the thing to see if I could see any writing on it, all bomb-technician style, making sure not to touch it in case it was "sweating" in the way TNT is rumored to do, I didnt want to set it off or anything.
Well, I couldnt see any writing on it, so I kind of convinced myself "Quit being such a pussy and take it down, it's probably just some nasty old deer sausage."
So I did, and sure as sh*t, the label on the under-side that I couldn't see read "HYDROMITE EXPLOSIVE AGENT" I nearly shat myself right there as it lay upon my work bench.
Ended up calling the cops and some local city cop, not any older than I am showed up, didn't know WTF it was and said "I think this is what most people call "Gun Powder""
I said, "Well, typically gun powder doesnt come in a tube as an emulsion from what I know, but you're the cop"
He ended up copying down all the info from the label and calling the highway patrol, because neither my city or county have a bomb squad (nice knowing that).
The Highway patrol bomb guys showed about an hour or so later and took the stuff out of there, said I did the right thing by calling, etc. They were pretty cool and decided to take the stuff down to the local quarry and detonate it. They didnt ask much about the circumstances in which I found it, but did manage to find out who owned the house before me, so Im not sure if they're trying to find out anything else or not. They really didnt seem to concerned.
The really scary part is that I have soldered copper with a torch not 5 feet from where the explosives were hidden. AND it was directly under where our bed is in the basement.
...buy a house from rednecks, and expect redneck sh*t.