Not enough information so may change title . CBS just reported ! 600# of explosivies stolen from CSX in Ohio. Clip said police looking in three states. May be from some freight train ?
WCCO (CBS) reported that 600# of fireworks were stolen from a CSX train. I assume a container was broken into. Railroad police in general watch container trains like a hawk. There is no report where the theft took place.
Ed Burns
Definitely not enough info. What kind of explosives, how sensitive to shock, etc, etc, etc…
Of course, the authorities aren’t too anxious to panic the Chicken Littles, most of whom go into, “Run in circles, scream and shout,” mode at the slightest perception of danger. Not everyone out there is a former Disaster Control specialist who considers explosives to be tools, not Mighty Engines of Destruction…
Chuck, MSgt(ret) USAF
Here is what MSNBC is reporting. 32 cases of 21/2 and 51/2 inch commercial grade aerial charges were found missing from a CSX train. Full story below.
WASHINGTON - Federal authorities are investigating the theft of a large shipment of commercial-grade fireworks from a CSX train that was traveling between Chicago and Detroit.
Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun said 32 cases of 2 1/2 to 5 1/2-inch aerial charges were discovered missing yesterday. Several hundred pounds of fireworks are believed to have been in the cases, according to media reports.
It is possible, Colbrun said, that the material could have been taken during the train’s stopover in Ohio.
Authorities said it was not immediately clear why the shipment may have been targeted.
Colbrun said the material represented a potential danger in the hands of inexperienced people.
In the past, fireworks have been cannibalized by some criminal suspects, including the Boston Marathon bombers, to construct deadly explosives.
Material from commercial grade fireworks also was used by Aurora, Colo., theater shooter James Holmes in 2012 to booby-trap his apartment with explosive devices to target law enforcement officers. The devices were discovered and dismantled before they were triggered.
Nasty small-scale incendiary devices as-is. Add a hard container and shrapnel and you have anti-personnel devices of hand grenade size. Or use them for filler in Boston Marathon type bombs.
If some Al Qaida or ISIS operatives or wannabes have this stuff, Ohio isn’t the only place that might have a problem. Here’s hoping they find the stuff, and the perps, quickly.
Chuck
Mulitple media reports are now saying that the shipment has been recovered by “authorties acting on a tip”. No word as to where.
My guess is that someone thought they were getting some of electronic goods, and was probably scared to death when they realize what they’d actually gotten their hands on. [:O] Even odds that =they= dumped the stuff
someplace far away and called it in to escape the heat???
hope I heard this right: talk about “backward” find…just heard news that a girl said her dad was a ticking time bomb (figure of speech) then he commits suicide, as they search his apartment … they find this stuff stolen from the CSX container…whoa hope this is not false news but what a find in the poor man’s home RIP endmrw0423161540
Black powder is VERY nasty stuff… VERY, VERY sensative to a static charge. ANY small static charge can set it off. Commercial grade charges are not small and can go off with one heck of a blast. I am glad that the stuff was recovered.
AP is now saying the missing material was found in a field southwest of Detroit.
Things are going to get very interesting in North Baltimore over the next few weeks. [^o)]
Local news is saying they were found in a Detroit neighborhood. They don’t call Detroit “The Hood” for nothing. Any train that is stopped for even a few minutes is likely to get plundered. The line from Delray to downtown has been awarded the nickname of “The Ho Chi Min Trail” by crews because anything is likely to happen there.
The rail car should have had orange placards saying EXPLOSIVES.
Yes, because when people are breaking into things, they stop to read the placard.
Just sayin’… There is a large muslim population in that corridor from area of the junction of I75, and I-90 (East of Toledo) North into the area of Detroit[:^)] Not a good place to loose anything that could go [:-*]
Pretty hard to miss:
Again how did they know that the Containers has fireworks. This is like the guns that were stolen off containers in Chicago. How many contaners do you have to break in and keep getting cheap doller store stuff before you hit paydirt.
Oh great
Oh Great and send a GPS to ISIS to track it while we are at it.
[quote user=“MidlandMike”]
n012944
MidlandMike
CatFoodFlambe
Mulitple media reports are now saying that the shipment has been recovered by “authorties acting on a tip”. No word as to where.
My guess is that someone thought they were getting some of electronic goods, and was probably scared to death when they realize what they’d actually gotten their hands on. Even odds that =they= dumped the stuff
someplace far away and called it in to escape the heat???
The rail car should have had orange placards saying EXPLOSIVES.
Yes, because when people are breaking into things, they stop to read the placard.
Pretty hard to miss:
“…a large Muslim population…”, uhhh, don’t go there Marine!
There’s good and bad in all races and faiths, just as there’s plenty who’ll steal anything that’s not nailed down just because it’s there.
Remember a lot of people of the Muslim faith come here for the same reasons many immigrants in the past came here, my grandparents being among them, the primary reason being they’re fed up with conditions in the home country that are never going to change and endurance of same has ceased to be a virtue.
Maybe whoever stole those fireworks dumped 'em because they got cold feet, or because they couldn’t figure out how to fence them, or because an explosives theft would bring the wrath of the US anti-terror organizations down them, but thank goodness this ended the way it did.
Sorry to get nasty here, but where was the security? Keeping surveillance on railfans with cameras?
And black powder being nasty stuff? Well, as one who’s burned up quite a bit of it in my “firelocks” let me tell you it CAN be if you don’t use common sense in handling it. Just like gasoline when you come right down to it.
Keeping security on a train that can exceed 2 miles in length is a daunting task - economics prevent having a security agent on the scene for each car or two.