Fireworks factory break in 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
England, 1997. A burglar tested his luck when he decided to break into a fireworks factory. He surveyed the building according to law enforcement for serveral days and then decided to pull off the heist at around midnight the following day. Our hero planned on going through the main door which was about 8 feet tall and 1 inch thick with iron. Realizing this he went home and returned with a cutting torch. Police said he had about made it through when a spark landed in a crate of fireworks that contained roughly about a 100 pounds of gunpowder. The ensueing explosion set off the entire factory and sent the door he was cutting right down on top of him with such force that it crushed him. Submitted on 01/07/2003
Submitted by:
Ryan Miller
Reference:
oldies 94.9 broadcast in 1997
Moderator Bert says, I asked about this submission (my comment has
disappeared) on the Pyrotechnics Mailing List, an international list I
follow. The short of it is: 1. The perpetrator(s) did survive (the vehicle
didn't!) 2. No one was ever apprehended. The following comments were
interesting:
"Two incidents come to mind - one was a few years back, the other just last
year. The older event did not claim the life of the thief, but his cutting
equipment was found, along with his car which had been flattened by the
concrete roof of the magazine, which had lifted (and landed) in one piece.
I recall the official police comment was "we are looking for someone who is
one sandwich short of a picnic. Last year another magazine was broken
into, not so very far from the one mentioned above, and in similar
fashion. On that occasion the thief failed to ignite the contents and
escaped with some of the stock. Maybe we are looking at a Darwin award
waiting to happen..." -Tom
"I do some development work for the company that now owns the site that was
attacked back in the 1990's. The store construction was of reinforced
concrete about 9" thick with a steel door & it was the door that was
attacked with a gas cutting torch. An ignition occurred of material inside
causing the entire store to "fall to bits" with the concrete walls & steel
reinforcing rods peeling back from floor level. Lumps of debris are still
found all over the site as well as odd bits of the vehicle used in the
raid, interestingly, despite the violence of the explosion, the debris was
confined within the factory perimeter. As Tom says, no one was killed in
the raid & it is assumed that no-one was seriously injured either, though
no arrests have ever been made. The "hole in the ground gang" as they have
been nick named are probably still at large.
A full incident report was produced by the HS&E and makes interesting
reading."
I'd guess we'll hear more of these guys. -Bert
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
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