Robert Cole
There was a chemical store on N. Clark Street when it was still legal to buy almost anything. Couldn't buy explosives, of course, but could buy the ingredients to make them.
We played with model rockets, too. The legal ones. However, when you load them up with an M80 to watch them explode 1000 feet in the air... Makes a GREAT fireball at night! Weigh one down and put an extra long fuse on it. Then launch it over Lake Michigan. So, it would fall, sink and explode underwater. Very cool!
Quite a few years ago I was investigated by the FBI. Maybe they thought I was a terrorist?
My wife and I owned a business that did science education for elementary school kids. There was a really cool demonstration of an exothermic reaction you could do with ammonium nitrate. But, since we did schools all over Centeral Indiana, I bought goodly quantities of the stuff... pounds.
I didn't realize what was going to happen after the Oklahoma City bombing, until I purchased a few pounds of ammonium nitrate mail order. THAT sure got the FBI's attention! Got a STRONG phone call asking what I wanted with the stuff! Let me know that I now needed a license to buy it. So... that demonstration got pulled from our classes. Probably spent years on some FBI list! Glad the "unmarked black SUV's" didn't show up at my front door!
Had some experiences with those "unmarked black SUV's with the dark tinted windows", too.
When I used to work for the city I was part of an emergency response team that got called out in emergencies, Yes... IT people can sometimes be first responders too, sort of. I got called out for 3 days during our "polar vortex" blizzard to handle non-emergency calls to 911. It was the dead of night in a raging blizzard when three unmarked black SUV's with tinted windows and flashing lights pulled up in front of my house to pick me up. They sent Homeland Security to come get me. Sure raised a lot of questions with the neighbors! Thought maybe I was some kind of spy or something!
Another few years later, when I was friends with the local head of Homeland Security, his daughter and mine were going to a One Direction concert. Whe you've got friends like that you know your pre-teen daughter is going to be safe! Once again, the unmarked black SUV showed up to pick up my daughter. Flashing lights got them to run all the red lights, past all the traffic and right to the front door of the concert. Then, of course they weren't happy, with the police escort sitting with them all through the concert. But, the dads felt pretty good!
Spent 9 years working IT for Public Safety. Spent lots of time and got lots of fun stories working with Homeland Security, the Police, Fire Dept., Sheriff, Coroner and Crime Lab. Bomb Squad... Task Force 1... the Sex Crimes and Gang Task Forces. Fun stuff. Not your usual IT job. Spent a lot of time in jail!
Let's just say my friends on the cops called me "deadeye." 3 seconds, 5 shots with a 9mm Glock from 35 feet on the police range, 4 bullseyes and one near.
Then there's the time the FD sent me up on the 110ft. ladder, then dropped me just to show how quickly they could get someone down in case of emergency. Some friends!
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