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2007 August Slush
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Forgetting Something?
Porch Swing Pipebomb
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Darwin Awards
2007 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
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Porch Swing Pipebomb

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Man Injured After Porch Swing Explodes

Tuesday, 14 August 2007

A Noblesville man was taken to the hospital after an attempt to get rid of bees backfired in a bad way Sunday.

Noblesville Fire Division Chief Rick Russell said Cody Lawson, 18, who lives with his grandmother, Shirley Lawson, at 1941 Maple St., was trying to kill bees or wasps that had taken up residence in the metal framework of a glider swing sitting on the front porch.

“Black powder – black gunpowder – was poured down into the tube,” Russell said. “His thought pattern was it would ignite, cause a fire and burn out the bees.”

Russell said Lawson used a lit cigar to ignite the gunpowder. But instead of burning, the powder exploded, sending shrapnel, wood pieces and debris flying as far as 32 feet away.

Lawson ran to a neighbor’s house for help. He was taken to the hospital with lacerations to his upper extremities and needed several stitches in his face from cuts he received in the blast, Russell said.

“It was a pretty substantial explosion,” Russell said.

There was no damage to the home, Russell said.

He added that the explosion got rid of the bees.

Russell said any time black gunpowder is used there is a high risk for danger, especially if someone has not had formal training in the use of explosives.

“When you confine them in a tube like that you’ve pretty much made yourself an explosive device or a bomb, and it’s very dangerous,” Russell said. “If there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s find some Raid or some type of product and don’t play with fire.”

By Rebecca L. Sandlin rsandlin@noblesvilledailytimes.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted on 08/16/2007

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: Noblesville Daily Times - 8/14/07

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
Let's see how much gun powder we can pack into this metal tube! Jeez... Hasn't this guy ever heard of wasp & hornet spray? It only costs about $5.00 at any hardware or lawn/garden store. I just had to pick some up to wipe out both yellowjacket & wasp nests that I recently found.


James said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
I imagine early experiments with gunpowder in the late 1200s AD had similar results! As Bruce said, there are dozens of insecticidal solutions to the wasp problem, but this bonehead was obviously convinced that his idea was "the better mousetrap"!


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