Ready....Fire......Aim....
 

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 :confused:
I'd give him a 4 out of 5 doughnuts for handling the siutation OK.

Bennett

damn - that's a hell of a story!

I teach match conduct classes for tactical shooting matches. We also teach 3-gun defensive shooting courses. One of the ranges we hold matches at backs up to Ft. Carsons artillery range.

Most of my yelling is about muzzle control and I remind shooters that their "stray" AD that heads out of the range will be chased back by a MUCH bigger round that carries ord with it!

Haven't had a new shooter AD on that range yet ;-)

BTW, glad you held your ground on the search (they were going to anyway, but you did the right thing.) No one who freely gives up their freedom, deserves it.

Yep, no surprise there. Now that they have the "Patriot Act" they can do with you what they please. All they need is some suspicion that you "might" be a terrorist. Funny how the "Patriot Act" has completely obliterated the Bill of Rights. Never quite figured out how this "Act" can possibly remain on the books for more than a heartbeat. :confused:

"We also teach 3-gun defensive shooting courses."---Tom

What do you hold that third gun with ?
Teeth ?
Toes ?
Other ?

Now go file a complaint with the office the cop was from. He had no P.C. to search and should be called on the carpet. There were no doubt dozens of cars in the vicinity of the loud boom. Did he search them all? Nail him.

Brian,
Please replace 'can' with 'has' and 'obliterate' with 'obiterated' in the above sentence. Return to me for grading by the end of class. :D

Well I guess some of us have forgotten that our nation is at war.

Have a great day,

Can I have my "A" now? :D

Since when did this become a "correct Grammar" zone?

You're sleeping again. :D

Almost every auto parts transaction of mine involves authority figures.
 

What no cavity search? How lax can they be? Life can be a bummer. When traversing american/canadian border it has been dangerous to quote the reason I am really entering. Not really a good ideal stating used antique auto parts for antique cars. That declaration usually attracts too much attention. I find it is much easier to be creative.The reentry into canada is a production that deserves a video. It's a simple contest though. Canadian customs want all of my money and so do I. Almost every transaction becomes a hassel. The shady type individuals you saw were probably fellow 123 owners waiting their turn to pick over the road kill you got the fender etc. from. :D Best to look poor but not stupid when approaching american auto wreckers in my experience. You got great prices on parts though. Just purchased a fender from alabama for 75.00 plus modest shipping this morning myself. Still looking for a good drivers fender. :sun_smile

So when did the Grammar cops stage the coup?

Grammar has nothing, whatsoever, to do with it.

The patriot act has nothing to do with what that cop did. I bet he doesn't even know what the patriot act is. Most people don't have a clue about it. Cops have always had the right or at least the excuse to act like a**holes. Not that all of them do, by any means, but they learn intimidation tactics and those work with most people.

The cop part of the story is interesting and unfortunately common, but a howitzer shell going off course and doing $100k in damage to a home is something else! How often does that happen? Imagine your dismay at losing a loved one for something so stupid. And I mean stupid.

DS
87 300D
Northern Iowa