Local newspaper: "Home-made lamp shut Woden centre"

That_Guy

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 5, 2005
Messages
310
Location
Canberra, Australia
On Tuesday Mum told me that she had to be evacuated from the Woden shopping centre in Canberra, Australia due to a bomb scare. In today's local paper (The Canberra Times) there's this: "Home-made lamp shut Woden centre" (click to view story online)

The juicy bits:

"A home-made lamp left in a toilet cubicle by accident sparked the dramatic evacuation of the Westfield Woden shopping centre earlier this week."

"It was a "high-tech illumination device" that resulted in the shopping centre being locked down for about seven hours.

It comprised electrical wiring and connectors, a circuit board, an external power source, a switch mechanism, high-intensity light-emitting diodes, contained within sealed PVC tubing."


"The device was rendered inert by the Bomb Response teams robot, removed for analysis by the AFP's Forensics Services and found not to contain explosive material."

Poor light. :( I would be pretty mad if that was my light they blew up. :(

"Through the identification of some components, police traced the owner who admitted he made the device at home for his own purposes and had mistakenly left it in the toilet cubicle.

In the statement, Deputy Chief Police Officer Shane Connelly said the owner of the device told police he had not been aware the device was missing until late on Tuesday afternoon.

He had not contacted police because of his embarrassment when he discovered his device had caused such alarm and inconvenience."


This has to be a CPF member. So come on, own up, who was it? :naughty:

In the paper there was a picture of the light which for some reason isn't in the online edition. It consisted of a PVC tube with a slightly larger diameter "head" with what looks like some black tape wrapped around the middle for grip and possibly a handle connected by around 1 foot of wire to what looks like a 7ah SLA battery. It looks a lot like a home-made dive light.
 

James S

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 27, 2002
Messages
5,078
Location
on an island surrounded by reality
This is the second time in the last few months that a flashlight has sparked (ha ha) a bomb scare. The other one that comes to mind was the guy that left a rusty maglight in the bathroom at a starbucks.

Do a search for pvc and see if any of the lights that come up look like the picture :D I know there have been several. But I dont know of anybody that would carry a SLA battery around the mall...

We'll find the culprit :D
 
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