Last thursday I went to a guys backyard shop/junkyard to pull a fender and hood off his old 123 Mercedes Benz. I met two men there... shady looking guys at best , one with a funny looking rolled up cigarette.... hhhmm'...must be trying to save on the high cost of pre packaged cigs and is rolling his own.
While I was there the 3 of us heard a huge explosion very close by. I figured someone had shot off a commercial firework near us. We talked about it for a while then I decided it was time to get busy because it was snowing.
I pulled my fender, hood, lights and loaded up to leave and headed down the street... all of a sudden a cop comes out of nowhere and pulls up on me head on with lights and tells me to get out of the car. ...Cop ask me if I have any weapons, drugs or
explosives? .......Uh, no!.. but I do have a very nice hood and fender for a Mercedes. Cop say's there has been a explosion or attack and terrorist threat of some kind. Cop wants to search my car and I get a little annoyed and say NO.. not unless you have probable cause. ( I think we have lost some privacy to all this terrorism stuff).. Cop say's he has cause and there is a threat . Cop start looking through my pickup cab. I had a 5 gal plastic bucket with 2 propane torches poking up out of the bucket of tools. ( that did not help the scenario) .The Cop asks what they are for. I tell him to loosen rusted bolts and soften the undercoating on the Benz fender to remove.. he is not amused and did not seem to even listen. Asks again if I have any weapons and explosives. I say NO... I do have a fly fishing rod behind my seat.... Cop goes to the back of my truck to search and has me open the topper lift door. .. cop spots 2 chrome barrel pipes with black burn marks on end ( see pic)... What is that ...a home made cannon or pipe for a projectile.???? NO that's is a set of exhaust pipes for a Honda Shadow motorcycle.
I tell him I heard the blast and I believe it was a stray shell from Avalanche shooters up the canyon .. I tell him cause it was snowing like mad and another close by canyon was closed due to shooting of avalanches with a howitzer as well. Long story short here is the article from the paper. He allowed me to leave after running my info.
Here is the article from the paper..
http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_2621477
I did not know for sure until later that night that it was really a loose cannon shot from near Bridal Veil falls in Provo Canyon that went up over Mt. Timpanogas and landed a couple hundred yards from us. My guess was right about the avalanche shooters shell.. I also thought it might just be the sound when a avalanche breaks loose and the sound came downthe canyon . I wasn't really sure anyway ..
* Interesting to note as the crow flies the shell went 5-6 miles.. and probably over 12,000 feet high. From where the shell hit I was some 10-12 miles via highway from where the howitzer was set up in the canyon that fired the live round . The targeted homeowner now has a crater in his back yard and $100k in damage.
interesting day to say the least! .. got my fender, hood, signal light, headlight and light chassi...for $100 not a bad day after all
I guess you could say " I had a Blast"
*edit*
for the circumstance I think the officer did a reasonable job.
He was not too pushy or arrogant like some. Who would have expected a artillery shell going off in a middle class neighborhood 
I'd give him a 4 out of 5 doughnuts for handling the siutation OK.
Bennett