Homemade Firecrackers and/or Pipe Bombs
Yesterday morning my husband was looking through our son’s dresser drawers when he found this:
It appears to be a toilet paper roll covered (both inside and out) with aluminum foil. Then there is a layer of duct tape wrapped around the outside. Inside the tube is small pieces of plastic (maybe from a plastic cup). There is also some kind of red bits mixed in too.
I had no idea what it was. My husband thought it might be some kind of huffing device. I took a whiff of it and it reeked. I immediately started to get a stomach ache. I didn’t know if it was because of what I just smelled or if it was psychological because I was worried our son was harming himself.
My husband put it in a Ziploc bag so we could talk to our son about it when he got home from school. I told him he needed to take it to the police department. They’ve seen tons of things in their line of work and they could probably identify exactly what it was.
The officer said he thought it was some kind of homemade firecracker or the start of a pipe bomb. He believes the red stuff is torn up matches. My stomach ache was back. My husband put the officer’s business card in the Ziploc bag and waited until school was over.
That night we confronted our son.
Us: What’s this?
Son: Oh that’s something Ryan gave me at school a long time ago. It’s supposedly a smoke bomb, but I don’t trust Ryan so I just put it in my dresser.
Us: We took it down to the police station and they told us it’s a homemade firecracker or the start of a pipe bomb.
Son: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Us: If this exploded those bits of plastic would shoot all over and could really hurt something. This is a beginner bomb. The next version could have nails or something in it and that could kill somebody.
Son: Oh, ok.
Us: Who is this Ryan? Is this somebody you hang out with a lot?
Son: No, he’s just some kid that keeps trying to hang out with us, but we don’t really like him.
Us: Well this [holding the bag up] is not welcome in our house.
Son: Ok.
I hope I’m not being naive, but I believe him. I think a kid at school really did give it to him and he really had no idea how dangerous something like this can be. But you better believe we will be watching him closely and making some sweeps of his room. There’s a fine line between allowing him his privacy and keeping him (and others) safe.
Wow – Christine,
You handled this well. But now you have to be on the constant lookout (as if you weren’t already before). It is so hard to steer them in the right direction – parenting has got to be the most difficult job out there.
You should take it a step further. Considering this “Ryan” gave it to him at school, you need to involve the school. Ryan could be in desperate need of help, as “he’s just some kid that keeps trying to hang out with us, but we don’t really like him”. Ryan is trying to fit in somewhere and if he doesn’t, he could do harm to those that rejected him and/or innocent bystanders. Evidently Ryan has some knowledge that could be detramental. Please let us know what happens next.
Okay, uhm… your kid is probably lying.
If not about the bomb being given to him, then about rejecting Ryan. He probably told you that so that he wouldn’t be kept from hanging around with him, though even that is possibly false.
If he isn’t lying, though, ask him about who Ryan is. If he’s uncomfortable talking about it, stop and show him that you automatically assume the worst. Then he’ll probably give in.
You really should learn about what kind of person Ryan is, though, before jumping to conclusions about whether or not theres going to be some harmful events coming up.
(I was mostly going towards Betsy’s comment)
This is so stupid. Do you not respect your sons privacy enough to leave his posessions alone? You say your husband was going through his dresser as if it were a normal thing. Talk about paranoid parents! I have some experience of homemade pyrotechnics and can tell you that the ‘device’ you discovered would do nothing worse than singe the hairs on your hand. From seeing this device, I don’t think your son would have the skills to make something powerful enough to hurt anybody.
it was a smoke bomb, the white piece of plastic was probably a ping pong piece, which when set on fire, smoke at an alarming rate, and the foil keeps it from burning too fast, and the matches…a fuse…duh. and alex has a good point, do you raid your sons room that often, do you have no respect for privacy??
sorry about the duplication, but you van go to youtube and metacafe to find out how bad pingpongs smoke
p.s. the red stuff could be coloring
Hey i have made these before if its what i think it is. Its a simple smoke grenade the cut up pieces are ping pong plastic which is highly flammable and produces nasty smelling smoke.Dont worry its nothing serious
Ok. I can understand you being worried about finding this. But, why the heck do you resort to taking it to the police? Just confront your son about it and leave the police out of it. Welcome to the new tattletale USA where even parents turn their kids in to the police for little nothings. 20 years ago we used to make our own firecrackers, bombs, whatever and light them off in fields and nobody thought anything of it. Now, the news has you so damned paranoid about everything that you spy on your kids and turn them in at the slightest inclination of anything. Shame on you. I bet you don’t allow him to have toy guns either because they are dangerous. I can’t wait till you find the pot and porno he definitely has, you should call Homeland Security for that one. I guarantee that the police station you went to kept record of this and your son is now in the system. If he’s stopped for a traffic ticket they will be more apt to search his car and harass him. Well done.
Actually the officer my husband spoke to didn’t even ask my husband’s name, let alone our son’s name. So he’s not going to be on any “record.” If I found something like this again I would do the exact same thing. The officer could tell us exactly what it was. If it really was something dangerous I doubt my son would have told me the truth.
And on the subject of toy guns, I don’t like my kids to play with toy guns that look like real guns. I don’t even like them to play these stupid shoot em up video games. But my youngest does have a toy gun that looks sort of like a real gun and we have tons of water guns. And my teens do play Call of Duty and Halo as does my husband. So I do pick my battles. Trust me, my kids are very much loved and very well taken care of. And yet still preparing well for their future on their own.
It’s a smoke bomb, the cops were wrong about what type of bomb it was and you trust them. L-M-F-A-O Lady, chill out
I would not worry about the plastic. It is cut up pieces of ping pong balls that when burned have the same effect as a smoke bomb.
Uhhhh, just thought I’d mention this but those look like cut up pieces of plastic ping-pong balls. And that looks like a home-made pyrotechnic tube. (most likely to be used in the creation of a large firecracker). Ping-pong balls are made mostly out of nitrocelluloce which is a high explosive. Most people do not know this. You can extract and purity it with the introduction of acetone (nail polish remover). The remaining goo is nitrocelluloce lacquer which can be used as paint for water-proofing fuses or can be used for the blasting substance itself. I don’t believe your son for a second. Sorry.
come off it boys will be boy. hes probably just making a bomb for a laugh we’ve all done it. go on youtube and put in butane bomb and theres hundreds of videos http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cbl-0lfD4Wg
i think taking it to the police is way over the top
u bunch of pussys lite the bloody thing then ull no what it is derr
i can’t believe u went through his dresser if we wanted to get blown up thats his fault let him because it was him who had it so it is his responsibility so let him get hurt no one else
Yeah, “boys will be boys”. Say that when when of your children blows his hand off. This is obviously a smoke bomb but pipe bombs are highly unstable. That thing has the potential to hurt someone, possibly even burning down their house.
Parents have a responsibility that include protecting their children and the rest of the family. Sometimes invading their kids privacy is one of those things that they have to do. If the parents of the Columbine kids (Trench Coat Mafia) invaded their kids privacy then that situation could have been prevented.
Christine, I don’t think your son is being entirely truthful, either. If it was something he didn’t care about that someone gave him, he would have thrown it away and not brought it in to your home. I’m not trying to tell you how to handle the situation, but I’d pressure him a little more about it.