Teenagers arrested for throwing dry ice bombs at vehicles.

[Liberal_in_LA]

:wtf:

Four teenagers, including a former Mission Viejo High School football star, have been arrested after allegedly tossing dry ice “bombs” into vehicles and at pedestrians in southern Orange County.

Authorities say Mitchell Gary Melugin, 18, and Robert Jacob Browne, 19, were part of a group of teens that lobbed the homemade explosives from an SUV last week in at least six incidents.

The simple devices are made by combining dry ice and water inside a plastic bottle. A reaction inside the closed bottle builds up pressure until it bursts open in a loud explosion.

Melugin, a former Mission Viejo High football player identified as the driver of the sport utility vehicle used in the attacks, and Browne, his friend, were booked Friday on suspicion of possessing an explosive device with the intent to terrify or injure.

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About 20 minutes later, someone in a vehicle of the same description threw one of the devices into the vehicle of a man driving with his window down near Alicia Parkway and the 5 Freeway in neighboring Mission Viejo.

The bottle exploded as the man grabbed it to throw it out and injured his hand, Amormino said. He followed the SUV onto the freeway and managed to write down the license plate number and call it in to authorities, who tracked down the vehicle.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/dry-ice-bomb-teenager-arrested-mission-viejo-football.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Explosive device?

Don't think qualifies as an explosive.

[jberryhill]

2. In many states, yes

How do you define explosive?

This is a device which generates a rapid shock wave and release of compressed gas.

It is an explosion by almost any definition.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_material

The energy stored in an explosive material may be

chemical energy, such as nitroglycerine or grain dust
pressurized compressed gas, such as a gas cylinder or aerosol can
nuclear, such as fissile isotopes of uranium-235 and plutonium-239

[EOTE]

3. Why not? It explodes.

It can do an awful lot of harm to someone. It could even kill someone, depending on how it's packaged. These things are certainly not toys. These kids need to realize that they're gambling with their lives and others'.

[snooper2]

4. close...you ever make a good one like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOF4IRj3CTo

[jberryhill]

5. The California Code does

If you look through the weapons provisions of the California Code, you will often find "destructive device" and "explosive device" together.

First, the definition is quite explicit:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=16001-17000&file=16100-17360

16460. (a) As used in Sections 16510, 16520, and 16780, and in
Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 18710) of Division 5 of Title 2,

(6) Any sealed device containing dry ice (CO2) or other chemically
reactive substances assembled for the purpose of causing an
explosion by a chemical reaction.

An example of one of the "explosive device" statutes is:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=18001-19000&file=18710-18780

18715. (a) Every person who recklessly or maliciously has in
possession any destructive device or any explosive in any of the
following places is guilty of a felony:
(1) On a public street or highway.
(2) In or near any theater, hall, school, college, church, hotel,
or other public building.
(3) In or near any private habitation.
(4) In, on, or near any aircraft, railway passenger train, car,
cable road, cable car, or vessel engaged in carrying passengers for
hire.
(5) In, on, or near any other public place ordinarily passed by
human beings.
(b) An offense under subdivision (a) is punishable by imprisonment
in the state prison for a period of two, four, or six years.


So, while it may be a "destructive device", the statutes pertaining to destructive devices are the same ones which apply to explosive devices, as defined in the California Code.

[Arctic Dave]

7. Sounds like a lowering of the bar.

A would call these conflagration (low expansion) not an explosion.

[yawnmaster]

8. Yes it is. It's not high explosive, but it is explosive...

what would you say should be the minimum velocity to be called an explosive?

[WatsonT]

6. Idiots. They should have done this before they turned 18

They might think they're just kids but they will be tried as adults.

[LeftinOH]

9. They aren't "teenagers" any more; they're adults. Get a life, losers. n/t