Hatrack River Forum: When paranoia goes to far

This is topic When paranoia goes to far in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :

This is way to funny

quote:
Heidi Brown was told she could park her new scooter outside the vehicle registration office while she waited to get license plates.

To her horror, it was blown up by the army after someone reported that it might be a bomb.

Police in Ipswich, eastern England, confirmed on Thursday that a moped had been blown up in a controlled explosion after local business people "raised concerns" that it could be a bomb.

"The moped was chained to the perimeter fence outside the building. We weren't able to identify whose vehicle it was because there were no license plates on it," said a spokeswoman for Suffolk police.

She said the surrounding office buildings were evacuated and three roads were closed off.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported the scooter belonged to Brown, a 22-year-old care worker, who said she had been told she could leave it there awaiting inspection.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Anyone else notice that things that would be a good Monty Python sketch are becoming more and more common in real life?

Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :

Oh, England jumped the shark long ago.

Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :

That's so true, Dag.

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

How long must that scooter have been chained up in order for this to have happened?

Posted by Lady Jane (Member # 7249) on :

Is she compensated?

Agreed on the Monty Python bit.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

If England's DMVs are anything like ours, it could easily have been hours.

Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :

OK, after long search I found this article.

quote:
A woman who tried to register her new scooter at a DVLA office had it blown up by the Army when it was feared that it could be a terrorist bomb.

Heidi Brown, a 22-year-old care worker, left the £1,000 Taishan Sport scooter outside the office in Ipswich last weekend to await inspection by DVLA officials.

A security guard said she could leave it in the car park. On Monday, staff called the police because it had no number plates. The town centre was closed for four hours and the Army carried out a controlled explosion.

Miss Brown said: "Since Monday, all the paperwork has come through telling us that it is now okay to use the bike. But, obviously, we don't have it any more."

A Suffolk police spokesman said: "We acted out of concern for public safety."

So it took four hours to blow up the scooter.
from here

Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :

Permit me to point out that we routinely detonate "suspicious looking packages" that have been found at potential targets.

And this was well before 9/11.

Give us a few months of active terrorist bombings and we'll start "controlled detonations" of anything that hasn't twitched in ten minutes.

But probably not politicians - more's the pity.

-Trevor

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

So this is basically the security guard's fault.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

No, basicly it was the IDIOTs who controlled and who were on the bomb squad.
There are very very very very very few things which don't sit around for hours and days.

[ March 21, 2005, 12:10 PM: Message edited by: aspectre ]

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

I'm just curious as to why they didn't phone the office it was outside of and check to see if they knew what it was doing there.

Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :

quote:
Heidi Brown, a 22-year-old care worker, left the £1,000 Taishan Sport scooter outside the office in Ipswich last weekend to await inspection by DVLA officials.

A security guard said she could leave it in the car park. On Monday, staff called the police because it had no number plates. The town centre was closed for four hours and the Army carried out a controlled explosion.

Sounds like it was left there over the weekend, and likely whomever told her to leave it there over the weekend wasn't in the office Monday morning. The people who did come in first thing to the office probably just found some strange scooter chained there.

I could totally see being an office worker who gets a phone call late Friday, saying "Yeah, sure, just leave it outside the front door and someone will check over it first thing Monday morning so we can get you out of here right quick. Come on over after work Monday afternoon, and it should be ready to go," but then not at all considering that a strange bike might be seen as a bomb threat.

[ March 21, 2005, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :

Ketchup - they probably did. And the office probably asked around.

But I'll bet nobody asked the security guard who probably wasn't there and probably didn't tell anyone about the guard's decision to allow a scooter with no tags to remain in the parking lot.

It's amazing how things can fall through the cracks.

-Trevor

Edit: What Claudia said. [Big Grin]

[ March 21, 2005, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: TMedina ]

Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :

Word, Trev. [Hat]

When paranoia goes to far, it just hasn't gotten to Far Enough. [Big Grin]

[ March 21, 2005, 01:23 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :

Even hypochondriacs get sick once in a while. [Big Grin]

-Trevor

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

The really paranoid part of me thinks that this could be part of a scheme by terrorists to consciously create bomb-threat fatigue through such stories, all in preparation for the real attack.

Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :

That's a very valid concern - people so inclined could cause so much more hysteria by misinformation than by actually attacking targets.

Which is one of the reasons why the Department of "Homeland Security" doesn't broadcast any and every rumor of a possible hostile act.

That said, if there was a sudden increase in "suspicious packages", I suspect the bomb squad would eventually get tired of being rolled out and a policy change would be enacted, obstructing the easy access of pedestrians to a given area. Or a more vigilent security system to monitor the area. In more abstract terms.

Or we'd just learn to live with it. I don't know the numbers of surprise bombs left that have been successfully intercepted prior to detonation.

-Trevor