Man wants Police to pay for destroyed property

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TheeBadOne

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Police Blow Up Cannonball, Owner Objects

Yale Metzger wants the Anchorage Police Department to replace his cannonball. Police officers say they blew it up to protect the public.


Metzger said he called police last week to have them examine the cannonball he found in Cordova. Instead, he said, the bomb squad showed up at his home last week with a remote-controlled robot, hauled away the cast iron ball and blew it up.


The police are calling Metzger "an idiot" for carrying the incendiary device around in his truck, then bringing it into downtown Anchorage, where they say it could have sent shrapnel flying for blocks had it exploded.


Metzger, 45, an attorney, found the 4-inch, 8-pound, cast iron ball last summer while excavating property he had purchased. It was unearthed in what most recently was a snow dump.


Metzger put the ball in the back of his pickup, where it rolled around for a year, he said. Over time he began to investigate how a cannonball, a projectile that stopped being used more than a century ago, could have ended up in Cordova.


Once the ball was in Anchorage, Metzger was concerned the ball could be still active. He wanted to know if his cannonball was solid or hollow, and if it was hollow, if it had volatile black powder.


The bomb squad took one look at it in Metzger's garage and treated it like a bomb seconds away from blowing.


"Could it have exploded?" Metzger asked. "Sure. So could a meteor fall out of the sky and hit your truck."


The bomb squad exploded the cannonball at the Anchorage Landfill. Sgt. Jeff Morton said a secondary explosion occurred and a different color of smoke blew out, making it certain that the cannonball had volatile black powder.


Police have not second-guessed their decision to destroy what might have been an artifact.


"We're not going to put a bomb technician's life in jeopardy over a cannonball or anything else," Jennings said. He called Metzger "an idiot" for bringing the bomb into town and for questioning the bomb squad's decision to destroy it.

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Metzger was concerned the ball could be still active
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Yet he is somehow upset that the EOD shared the same opinion?
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I found a cannonball in some woods in Crofton Woods Maryland as a kid...

I've always wished I'd hung on to it, or determined what battle it was fired during..
 
He's lucky he only lost his cannon ball. I took a teleconference course in explosives awareness a while back put on by the Knoxville PD bomb squad. They told the tale of a farmer that had a shed full of sweating dynamite, along with other things. They told the farmer to take a good last look at his shed, 'cause they were about to set fire to the whole thing. No way were they even going to breathe on that stuff! :eek: The farmer had to say bye bye to the shed and other tools, etc., inside.
 
It will be interesting to get WA's side of the story.

But, I think that if he went to them with the fear that it could explode, he probably shouldn't have been suprised when they detonated it.
 
Around the old forts in the South, all cannon balls found are x-rayed and if a "bomb" then destroyed, if solid taken by the state to add to the fort tourist trap.

I do wonder what he expected of them? Cut it open :eek: and try to pour out the powder :confused: .

Old things that were bombs go BOOM and should be destroyed since they are unstable.

But, JMHO but I do wish to hear the other side of the story :).

Wayne
 
Standard SOP in the military. We used to do our weapons qual at Ft. Polk. A lot of training has been done there since WW2.

on a zero range one of the troops tripped on something. It was some kind of ordance. We closed the range and evacuated everybody back to a safe distance. During this we called range control and notified them. The EOD guys showed up. They looked at it..went for some C4 and wire and other stuff. They then prepared the UXO for demolition.... and ran the wire back to a spot behind some trees . We moved everybody back from where the EOD guys had set up..lol. My logic being that if they thought that was safe..further was even better.

The KA BOOM! That old UXO made one hell of a show thank goodness we had hearing protection we caught a whiff of the blast wave.

so if you find UXO (Unexploded Ordanance) contact the authorities ASAP
 
I can't say that I think it was a terrific loss if some old ordnance was blown up - not like it's an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus or something. I suppose folks can debate whether or not that old cannonball was likely to detonate flying around the back of his pickup until the cows come home. Sounds like sound caution to destroy it to me. Had it gone off accidently, it would be a little late to try plan B.
 
So, let me get this straight. He finds a cannonball ($0 down, $0 a month), lets it roll around in the back of his pickup for a year (you know, like we all do with stuff that is important and valuable to us), and then when the PD blows it up for safety reasons, he wants money? If he had polished it, had a mount made for it, and then placed it on his mantle, he might have a legitimate argument. Right now, he doesn't. Just another jerk trying to make a fast buck, if you ask me.

I have the boxes that my coffee table came in sitting in the back of my truck right now. Maybe I should get them insured. :rolleyes:
 
Well, this has shown me that if I find something cool the last people I tell will be the peacekeepers.
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Psssst! I found these really cool dynamite sticks over at the construction site... am thinking they will make great horseshoe stakes! Wanna come over and help me pound them in? I need some kind of heavy mallet though, 'cause the ground is kind of rocky in the backyard... he-he-heee! The guys are gonna be so jealous! Noones got horseshoe gear like this! :)
 
If you want to pick up cannon balls and all sorts of associated crap, cruise the back roads in the farm country in Western Europe in the spring.

Farmers unearth scads of unexploded, but still live, ordnance from the first and second world wars.

They leave it by the side of the road where it's collected and disposed of.
 
I don't care how much "cool stuff" is out there, I'm not picking it up.

Seen too many UXO's on the bombing range at Alamogordo. Seen too many write ups of the wild mustangs gettin' blown sky high. One of the reasons that they give you this little briefing when you get that area on your line badge that says, "DON'T LEAVE THE ROAD" (and don't play with the horses but that was another matter :D ).

As a man, it is in my genes to say words like "cool" and maybe poke it with a stick. But the man who has some knowledge, knows that a phone will work to call someone that can handle it (and will stay around 150 feet from it due to radio waves and I have no clue what it may, or may not do).

Now, if I unburied a 20mm cannon that was unloaded, I wouldn't call anyone but would break out the 0000 wool, the cleaning kit, and then have to find out how to get 20mm rounds at a later date :D.

Wayne
 
Wayne - agreed - I don't think landmines and buried bombs are cool - just a problem waiting to happen. That was just poorly phrased sarcasm on my part. :o
 
Have had to deal with the headaches involved when an associate tried to blow off part of his hand when he came across and old artillery simulator on old a military base. UXO is not something I need to mess with.
 
A lot of people don't realize that there are still large areas of France that are closed off because of unexploded ordnance.

From the FIRST World War!

There's a dept. in the French Ministry of the Interior whose sole duty is to clear these grounds as well as deal with the found ordnance. Dangerous work. Even ground that's "clear" isn't always clear. A group of 5 French farmers who were cutting wood built a fire right on top of an unexploded artillery shell. It exploded, and all of them died.
 
Cops might want to look at a counter charge of possession of an unregistered DD. Surely Alaska has a law about who artillery shells? Might make for a quick settlement.
 
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