THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409080171
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
Teenage hoodlums have learned a frightening new way to breach the peace. Using common household chemicals and ordinary bottles and cans, they are manufacturing bombs powerful enough to blow a metal mailbox to smithereens.
Chesapeake police say they have recently investigated more than a dozen reports of the homemade explosive devices. One person has been charged with a felony punishable by up to 10 years behind bars, and several more arrests are expected soon.
You can bet these kids didn't learn enough chemistry in school to figure out how to transform a bottle of bathroom cleanser into a potentially lethal explosive. Detectives say explicit directions for making the bombs are readily available in magazines, mail-order books and even on computer bulletin boards.
When that kind of information gets in the hands of foolish kids, it's just a matter of time until one of them loses a hand or an eye or - worse - causes injury to someone else.
Here's yet another menace for parents to be on the lookout for in these perilous times. by CNB