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back to article 'Suspicious toilet' provokes Maryland bomb scare

A "suspicious toilet" left outside a government building yesterday provoked a full-scale bomb alert in Towson, Maryland. A security guard spotted the white crapper dumped outside the Old Courthouse at around 8am, and called in the cops. According to the Towson Times, the porcelain loo was packed with "some type of electronic …

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  1. Sabine Miehlbradt
    Coat

    Very relieved, indeed

    Do the bomb disposal guys wear diapers in those suits?

    They look like the devil to get out and are probably hard to clean if anything goes of unexpectedly.

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  2. Elmer Phud

    OhFFS!

    " "could be charged with crimes related to placing a lookalike explosive device in a public space"."

    Since when did a bog look anything like an explosive device?

    Generally, a toilet is used to counter explosive situations - unless there is dodgy plumbing in which case it can backfire.

    Or was it when the 'device' was placed in situ and passersby were told 'I'd leave it a minute or two'

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      remember

      Remember the hilarious yanks when those led boards with aliens were put on them, Americans are always coming up with amusing ways to prove how lame they are. Well American authorities and the great sea of Morons that make up a fair % of their population.

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      1. LaeMing
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Remember also...

        ... said bowl was packed with wires and a mobile phone (it's there in the article, for people bothered to read beyond the headline). Assuming it wasn't just an abandoned loo on the streetside was almost certainly sensible.

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  3. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    "....with a sniffer dog...."

    Poor bugger. It's bad enough around yer average publicly placed dunny with a human nose.

    Getting a dog to stick his smelling equipment in there and take a good sniff has got to qualify as "cruel and unusual punishment".....

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    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)
      Reply Icon

      Re: "....with a sniffer dog...."

      Nah, dogs don't have the impediment of disgust in the same way we do. To them the world is just an awesome 3-D technicolour explosion of fascinating stenches. This would probably be a plum job for a sniffer dog.

      Dogs are gross.

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      1. J. Cook Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Go

        Well played! (was Re: ".... with a sniffer dog....")

        @Sarah Bee: I almost needed a new keyboard from that one.

        Indeed, dogs are gross. Cats too, for that matter.

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      2. Fatman
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        RE: Dogs are gross.

        @Sarah Bee,

        You must be a cat person then.

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  4. Andrew Newstead

    Glad -

    -to see that he cops managed to lift the lid on this case...

    Obviously someone with a grudge againt the cistern...

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    what does a bomb look like then

    "Since when did a bog look anything like an explosive device?"

    since rucksacks or anything else did, you can dress anything up to look like a bomb and provoke a bomb scare, if you do that you deserve the consequences.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Big Brother

      By which logic...

      ... it is against the law to leave any object larger than a pack of ciggies anywhere.

      Which is the point, of course.

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    2. Tom 35
      Reply Icon

      fake bomb

      The law is for people who tape a clock and some batteries to a bunch of road flares or leave a box with "this is a bomb" on the side. Not for things that are assumed could be a bomb as that could be anything left behind by accident or as a protest like this case.

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      1. Oninoshiko
        Reply Icon
        Joke

        That takes me back

        In the late 90s I used to go to one of the local universities' student clubs (which where, as a matter of fact, open to the public). they always had a costume contenst in October, and one year someone (one of the officers, in fact (who always had the best, weakest, and most wrong costumes) . One year one of them got an olive-green vest and taped a TI calculator and some road flairs to their chest, and declared "im a TERRORIST!!" It was a riot at the time, today it would probibly cause riots.

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  6. HP Cynic

    Pic

    I forsee this picture being featured in a DeMotivational or similar meme:

    "Bomb Squad: we crap bombs" or something.

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  7. ColonelClaw
    Joke

    Phew

    Good thing it wasn't a real bomb, or it might have been a dis-arse-ter

    I'll get my coat

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  8. Chris Hunt
    Coat

    First, the news...

    Since the toilet was removed from the town hall, police have nothing to go on.

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  9. codemonkey
    Coat

    Lethal

    Where's Riggs when you need him?!

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Pic

    No way was that toilet made for American backsides! It just aint big enough and couldn't possibly hold the weight!

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  11. Lloyd
    Stop

    Aha! he's admitted his guilt

    "I don't know nothing about it."

    Double negative, so he does know something about it, n'est pa?

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  12. David 18

    HIGNFY

    That photo is just crying out to be used on the caption competition! Maybe El Reg should run one?

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  13. asiaseen

    Plainly

    a busted flush

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The problem here is that the Towson cops

    need to get out and spend more time in the sticks.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untitled)

    Double negative ? Well he could care less !

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  16. disgruntled yank

    Ah yes.

    During renovations some years ago, a neighbor complained that we had a porcelain throne parked out by our porch. I'm grateful, in retrospect, that she didn't call the bomb squad.

    The American Visionary Art Museum (known in the household as The Whacko Art Museum) is a fine establishment in Baltimore, and just the place to send a properly decorated toilet.

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  17. Maty

    Flushed out the suspect?

    I assume someone leaked the information of his whereabouts?

    Or was it in the paper?

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  18. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    As for racism...

    I suppose from the point of view of the throne itself, one patron is hardly to preferred to another, but restrooms were highly segregated until the 1960s, and apparently in Philadelphia until around a year ago.

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  19. Monkeywrench
    Grenade

    Shades of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover

    Guess everyone involved in this must have seen Lethal Weapon II at least once....

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