Greetings, Readers, from the land of the free, home of the — YIKES! akftdaeyeb
A stuffed animal!
Perhaps you’ve heard this story: Yesterday, a stuffed-animal about 2 feet high standing near a school caused imaginations to go wild in Orlando (where you’d never, ever expect to see a large, fake animal). It was a pony-shaped thing and the bomb squad was summoned.
Next thing you know, the school goes into “modified lockdown,” the neighborhood gets cordoned off, a robot is sent it to examine the stuffed animal.
In sci-fi, the robots are always smart. But here in the real world, this one apparently gave the thumbs down signal and — BOOM! I’ts pony-in-the-sky time. Voila:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSytuN7YTog]
Feel free to come up with your own headline for this video. Or this country. — Lenore
76 Comments
I am speachless! I truly think the world has gone mad…
WOW!!!!! is kind of how I feel too.
Here’s what kills me. It sounds like the neighborhood residents are the ones who called in the fuzz.
Neighbors said the placement of the stuffed toy made it appear suspicious to them.
The toy was found in a cul-de-sac next to a park near Waterbridge Elementary.
“It just looked like it was placed in a really suspicious place,” resident Scott Kilwein said.
“We’re right by the school, and kids walk right be here every day,” resident Earline Murray said.
Because, goodness knows, it’s impossible that one of the many children who walk right by there every day could have simply put the pony down and forgotten it. Kids never do things like that! [/sarcasm]
On behalf of the robot, it was a Furreal Pony, which has mechanical innards that make it move around and make pony sounds. I can see how a robot could mistake those inner workings for something potentially dangerous. After all, robots are only as smart as the people who programmed them…
What are we coming to as a nation where our first response to seeing harmless toy lying on the sidewalk is to call in the bomb squad?
“Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity” Guy Ritchie
I’m sure once the police are called there is nothing they can do but error on the side of caution.
Still, someone needs to add a humorous voice over of what the pony is thinking just before it gets blown to smithereens. Then at least its demise won’t be in vain. 🙂
Again, we see that the terrorists won. It’s tragic.
some little girl is gonna be so sad when she finds out…
Reminds me of the time in late 2001, during the anthrax scare, when a local mall was evacuated because of a “mysterious white powder” found in a baby changing area of a washroom.
Guess what the mystery powder was? Gee I wonder.
I almost had the bomb squad called in on me at my job. No, I’m not kidding.
My company is located in a large office building complex. There are public bathrooms on each floor. A few weeks ago, I decided to use my lunch hour to go for power walks (since getting time to walk at home seems to never quite work out). The first day I did this, I changed my clothes in the bathroom and put them in my gym bag. Not wanting to come back into my office in my walking clothes, I left the bag under the sink with a note on it stating “Do not discard. I’ll be back for this bag at 2 p.m.” When I got back, my bag was gone. I managed to find it at my desk, changed my clothes, and thought all was well.
That thought was wrong. Apparently a couple of paranoids saw the bag under the sink, immediately thought it was a bomb, and ran to the property managers, completely freaked out.. Because the note was our office stationary, the prop managers came to my office (while I was gone) and were threatening to call the bomb squad. I had told my boss I was going for a walk, and she finally retrieved the bag everyone was so frightened to touch.
And all I thought of was….really? If I was a potential terrorist, I think there would be better targets than some obscure third-floor office in Milwaukee, WI. And, of course, all terrorists write notes on office stationary stating they’ll be back for the bomb at a certain time.
Whatever. I still go for walks but now I leave my bag in the office. And I’m still getting harassed by my co-workers for “planning to blow up the building.” 🙂
The really SICK part of that story was NOT so much the fact that a bunch of worst-case fanatics blew up a kid’s toy. The sickest part is that the media, instead of QUESTIONING the hysteria, instead decided to CONTRIBUTE to it – and AFTER THE FACT to boot! AFTER the toy proved harmless! In reading that WESH article, I actually had to check other sources just to confirm that there proved to be no bomb, drugs, etc hidden inside ol’ Trigger there. The WESH reporting didn’t make that clear – because, of course, to prolong the hysteria is to prolong the viewership. Sick b*stards.
I wonder if the guy in the suit at the end of the clip felt stupid.
“Reminds me of the time in late 2001, during the anthrax scare, when a local mall was evacuated because of a “mysterious white powder” found in a baby changing area of a washroom.”
The worst instance of this was when someone called the police because there was white powdery stuff on the fruit in their fruitbowl in their kitchen.
What did they think? The terrorists sneaked into their house, sprinkled stuff on their fruit, and left? That’s so much more likely than their fruit getting MOLDY!!!!!!! At least in this case, the emergency squad DIDN’T respond because they explained to the people why there was white powdery stuff on their fruit.
“If I was a potential terrorist, I think there would be better targets than some obscure third-floor office in Milwaukee, WI.”
Ask around. There’s probably some urban legend about why your building is a high-value target.
Every place I’ve ever lived, and several places I’ve worked, there was a narrative about why we were the #1 target (when I was a kid it was for a nuke, now it’s the terrorists) because of some industry or Special Government Installation nearby. It seems like in every community, there’s something people can conjure up to make themselves feel important.
In 2002 our town investigated a white powder in a doughnut shop. (The obvious joke is that the officers should have known better.)
In early May there was a report of bomb scare every other day in our local paper. Ironically the one that was quickly dismissed as a false alarm without an evacuation was a few blocks from where a former President was about to speak. Based on this local sampling, there must be thousands of these frequent false alarms happening across the entire country. How many anthrax or actual bombs have there been in the past 9 years? With odds this slim, the logical and rational response should be that it is nothing to worry about.
Poor pony. And poor kid who lost her pony.
Don’t these morons have anything better to do?
Give the bomb disposal squad a bomb to blow things up, and gosh before you know it the only mad bombers are the bomb disposal squad.
Huh, that’s a $300 robo-pony! Not something that will be easily forgotten. I bet somebody got a talking to that evening.
OK I can’t resist.
When I was seven years old I saved my allowance to buy chickens. I got eggs from the chickens and sold the eggs and saved the money. I used the money to buy a real pony, with a saddle and tack, for $70. Not $300. I then would take the pony and disappear for entire weekends. One time I rode to the top of a mountain about 20 miles away and stayed with the ranger there. He insisted on calling my mom to see if it was OK. She said sure, but was surprised I had gotten that far. At no time did he threaten to blow up my pony.
Perhaps your bomb squads are simply underemployed?
Get ’em a ticket to Europe – we’re still digging up real big whoppers from WWII all of the time. 🙂
Come to think of it — I’m tempted to take these overreaction as a sign that North America most be a really safe and secure place, if your immune system goes into overdrive like this. Kinda like the theory that allergies are on the rise because everything’s so clean that the immune systems keeps looking for fights.
Utterly ridiculous!
In fact I dont see anything wrong about it. No kids are restricted or ‘coptered here, no free-range issue. Just a one-off event where emergency team interfered with normal everyday activity.
Terrorism risk, however small, exists. Attention on the side of neighbors exactly to stuff like that diminish the risk of successfull attack a lot, SO THAT kids are not confined in homes. The destruction of innocent toy is sad and all but it was just a synthetic toy. Very little loss vs. sheltering of kids out of fear that there are undetected bombs outside
Next time keep better eye on your 2-foot (!!) big toy.
I love Lenore’s site. It always reminds me of “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” by Carlo M Cipolla, Professor of Economics at UC Berkley. The lessons contained there fit very well with this subject, as excerpts from that work illustrate……
…”Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behavior……Because the stupid person’s actions do not conform to the rules of rationality, it follows that:
1. one is generally caught by surprise by the attack;
2. even when one becomes aware of the attack, one cannot organize a rational defense, because the attack itself lacks any rational structure. ”
…and from Schiller…
“against stupidity the very Gods fight in vain.”
@Ash Are you serious? This doesn’t diminish the chances of a successful attack at all, but teaches kids and staff they can realistically expect to get attacked by terrorists or just mad men, even though its one of the unlikeliest scenario. “Report everything” leads to mistrust, feat and denunciation.
@ Marius: Exactly. They don’t even have to set foot on our soil, we are doing the job for them to ourselves.
@ Ash: Read Marius’ post. While not exactly about Free-Range, it is about the same fear and paranoia associated with helicopter parenting.
More and more I’m realizing the irrational of these types of people. They fail to see that ONE issue, relates to ALL fearful and paranoid issues. Fear for you children is no different from fear of terrorism, or dogs, or heights, or even rejection. Fear is fear, and it makes people do irrational and illogical things. Also, the mental consequences can be very detrimental. And we all know, that mental issues can be far more destructive than physical.
This kind of scenario is difficult. People who know a neighborhood are the ones best placed to decide if something is unusual, and despite 9/11 actual bombs in America are frequently domestic in nature so not being a top secret government agency does not mean you can dismiss such threats.
Bombs are a rare occurrence, but they do happen and you can’t expect law enforcement (or anyone) to simply walk up and prod something they think might possibly blow up and kill them just because it’s unlikely. And with something like this you want to be on the false positives side of getting it wrong, not the false negatives.
Nevertheless, a kids toy on a route that kids use a lot seems like it ought to need something a little more than simply existing in order to be considered a threat. I think this is the problem with too much “trust you gut” messaging. You need to trust your gut, but use your head.
Sure… a potential bomb is much more dangerous than a definite one. What if one of those kids escaped lock down and was blown up with the pony?
I don’t think the placement was suspicious at all. Where do you place a giant stuffed pony? In an area where people will appreciate it. A place frequented by kids sounds like the perfect place for this sort of thing…
Another day, Another idea for Al Queda….
@Ben Sure… a potential bomb is much more dangerous than a definite one. What if one of those kids escaped lock down and was blown up with the pony?
I don’t think the placement was suspicious at all. Where do you place a giant stuffed pony? In an area where people will appreciate it. A place frequented by kids sounds like the perfect place for this sort of thing…
I’m not sure if my sarcasm meter is broken, or you’re serious. If you’re serious, I feel sorry for you. Only the truly evil purposefully target children for this kind of thing, but apparently your world is populated by the truly evil.
Yes, it COULD happen, but how often? I dare you to tell me even 5 times that a bomb has been placed targetting children in the United States in the last 10 years.
ok…when I saw this on the news, they indicated there were wires sticking out from it. Was that not actually the case? Because a toy, in the center of a cul-de-sac, with wires sticking out of it would set my personal alarms off.
Reading the article, it said it was wired, but it wasn’t the way it was reported here. Hrm.
I love the thumbs up: “yep, it’s blown up!” If the neighbors paid more attention to the kids in their neighborhood they’d probably know who it belongs to, geez.
Maybe it was a “Pinto”
This reminds me of something we use to do all the time in my old neighborhood in Austin. we would leave out stuff we didn’t want, usually in the tree lawn, but if it was something we thought someone particular would like we might put it near where we thought they would go. nothing, no matter how crappy, ever lasted more than a day, most stuff disappeared within a few hours.
Once I was given a few nice new bikes, perfect size for older kids, which I didn’t have. We decided to put them in the yards or drives of kids we thought would Ike them, with notes that said “keep if you want, give away
if not”. everyone loved it! I wouldn’t put junk on someones lawn, but nice stuff I thought would be ok. if there was a local school and lots of kids walking to it, I could see leaving stuff out for them to find and keep. I would have loved this as a kid!
I think that the comment about terrorists winning is right. When we are so afraid of a stuffed animal, robotic or not, in a spot where Its likely a kid left
it, that we blow it up, we have succumbed to fear thoroughly. (sorry for that run on sentence!) Al Queda doesn’t have to do anything, Americans are already shaking in their shoes over Nothing, and throwing our rights away as if people before us hadn’t fought and died for them. This countries founders would be disgusted by what we have turned into as a society, as far as fear goes. (I do think they would be impressed by other stuff we do).
I love America, and don’t want this fear to become the norm. How do you stop it, other than speaking out and living boldly?
When I say leaving stuff to take was something we use to do, I mean just a few years ago, maybe 2 or 3, before moving to the West Coast.
@Ben: HILARIOUS!!!!
@Shaun: Nah… the terrorists should already know about the Trojan Horse. This is old now. 😉
If that pony would have been left alone in my old neighborhood, there’d be some kid with a brand new toy. LMAO.
Paranoia strikes again!
There are Bombs everywhere!
I was asked to hand over my bifocals for inspection upon reentering the US from México. When I asked the obvious “Why?” I was told that some eyeglasses are “explosive”. Sure glad there were no stuffed toys in my car.
okay… am i the only one who enjoyed that video? more exploding ponies, please!
My favorite part of the story:
“Once you see that it’s a stuffed animal, your mind starts racing with all kinds of … crazy stuff in the world,” Kilwein said.”
Really, your mind starts racing with crazy stuff when you see a stuffed pony? What kind of freaky childhood did you have?
Terrorists, foreign or domestic, don’t target random suburban cul-de-sacs. I suppose that if you have some person susceptible to a potential terrorist attack – say an abortion doctor – living in your cul-de-sac a little more caution might be warranted. But otherwise a stuffed pony is just a stuffed pony. It was right near two places famous worldwide for lost children’s items – a school and a park. Leave it alone and some kid will eventually remember where she left her pony. If you are really worried about it for some strange reason, it’s heavy so it didn’t travel far, knock on your neighbors’ doors and ask if they lost a stuffed pony before calling in the calvary.
I hope they cleaned up the bits so that the poor kid didn’t have to come out after school to see his/her toy strewn across the street.
Whenever weird stuff would turn up in/near my primary school, the first thing that happened was that all the teachers asked the students, “Did anyone bring a toy (unspecified, so they didn’t get dozens of false positives) to school and forget it somewhere?” I wonder if this school bothered asking the children.
The pony is rather large a small child can ride it. So it probably wasn’t dropped or lost by a child. But as many of the parents from the school thought it was some ones rather funny way of discouraging double parking during drop off time.
@Scott, thanks for the great laugh today 🙂
I actually watched the response when a briefcase was found sitting next to a dumpster about 100 yards from a military motel. Some poor schmuck probably came back at lunch looking for his briefcase and found tiny shards of leather and paper where he’d forgotten after setting it down to toss something into the dumpster. Total over-reaction, but they didn’t have bomb-sniffing robots back then. It was funny, though!
I can’t help myself, I am just laughing here. At the boy level, I just always wanted to blow up a stuffed pony, and I have a sneaking suspicion that these guys just couldn’t let an opportunity like this go past. On the other hand, my theatrical instincts tend to wander into this territory as an artistic technique to comment on the terror we are feeling, but as in art, thus in life. I feel thwarted. On the pony, my father has an old one like it, but on a rocking stand so the children can ride it.
I mean, gee whiz. It was a stuffed animal, left near a PARK. I can’t imagine what in the world a stuffed animal was doing near a PARK. [/sarcasm]
Next thing you know, we’re going to star blowing up suspicious rolls of toilet paper left in public bathrooms. Or suspicious grocery carts left at the grocery store.
And yes, this is relevant–the same fear that feeds this feeds parenting, and morons who call CPS on parents who believe in free-range. All the teenagers should be posting “SMH” (shaking my head) to this.
In closing–can I say this? Damn people, DAMN! You’ve GOT to be kidding me.
Here’s a question. When they find the kid this belonged to bawling his eyes out because his toy got blown up, will they arrest him for planting a “bomb like device”?
“The pony is rather large a small child can ride it. So it probably wasn’t dropped or lost by a child.”
Actually I’d bet money on a kid taking it outside and either getting distracted or deciding that it was too heavy to carry back in and leaving it there.
*Face palm* Why oh why oh why are people so stupid? The pony was probably some poor little girl’s. For crying out loud, next thing you know, things in nature will become treated as bombs. Oh no, a tree! It’s a bomb! Lock your doors! Call the bomb squad!
I love America and all it stands for, but I honestly don’t think that it’s the “home of the brave”. Not anymore, at least. There must be some kind of wimp epedemic going on.
[This article](http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-09-07/news/os-stuffed-pony-blown-up-orlando-20100907_1_pony-toy-hasbro-website) has some more details, such as interview with someone who saw the pony and at no time felt it was threatening, one lady thought that someone was using the pony to reserve a parking space.
[These ponies](http://www.butterscotch-pony.com/) are over THREE FEET TALL and are intended to be especially life like.
I suppose if I saw a three foot tall stuffed robotic pony in a parking space I would cause for concern, but my concern would be that someone would steal the pony before whoever owned it returned.
Many years ago morning drivers found a full size rhinoceros in the middle of a highway near a zoo. People called the zoo, and the zoo absolutely denied having lost a rhinoceros. Of course the rhino was standing absolutely still, as everyone knows they do before they charge. Pretty soon every radio station was denouncing the zoo for not coming to get their rhino, but the zoo held fast in insisting that it was not their rhino and they would not be dealing with it. Eventually some very brave animal control people got close enough to it and discovered that it was an absolutely lifelike rhino sculpture made out of concrete which weighed over 10,000 pounds. A crane and large truck had to be used to remove it.
No college students ever took credit for the prank, nor has any one explained how they managed to drop a rhino off a flatbed truck using a crane in the morning just before the rush traffic started without anyone noticing.
So if the police will do that to a pony with no real investigation, why don’t they put known drug dealers and batterers in prison?
Anyone have any suggestions of a great country to move to?
Standardized tests train a person not to think. Can’t you see the connection? 😉
@Dot Khan, I’d love to investigate powder in a doughnut shop! 🙂
I think the bomb squad guys just got annoyed about being called out for a stupid stuffed pony and blew it up just because they could.
@crystalblue: I hate to break it to you, but often the police conduct exactly this much investigation into drug dealers and whatnot, too. Start <a href="http://www.theagitator.com/2010/05/05/video-of-swat-raid-on-missouri-family/"here for an example. And when you’re done, Google Mayor Calvo. It’s enough to turn your stomach.
with all the internet access these days…no one thought to GOOGLE “life size pony” and see what popped up? (try it I dare ya)
2nd thing on there is the spitting image of the one blown up in a YOU TUBE VIDEO.
And anyone who says “it does not happen often, BUT it does happen” to ANYTHING just let some uneducated media nutcase and the terrorists win.
we have “secured” our lives so much we depend on it, not think about it logically.
shadowL – “And anyone who says “it does not happen often, BUT it does happen” to ANYTHING just let some uneducated media nutcase and the terrorists win.”
I said this earlier in the thread, and I don’t think of myself as particularly swayed by media nutcases. I was a police officer for a time and responded to bomb threats (in the UK, way back in the ’90s – mainly animal rights activists and IRA) only one of which was real. So I wonder what your practical solution is for those people who respond to these things – “You’re only going to get blown up once, so don’t worry about it?”
The assumption that an everyday object that is out of place is a bomb seems ridiculous to me. But not being there I don’t know what else might have been a warning sign to the people making the call so I think it’s hard to make a judgment from this kind of media report.
Fear that gets in the way of everyday life to a greater extent than bombs actually going off is really bad. But the *occasional* false positive seems like the line is falling in the right place.
@above
I still don’t see how is this related to actual kids in any way. No kids took part in any part of the scene
Over reaction : I have heard about few events worldwide where an abanoned toy like this was a bomb. Yep it is one more of the really small risks that some are alarmed of. Whether it was reaction or not will also depend on the area and time as to estimate the actual risk
But here comes the difference : any other story I read on this blog (and fully agree with Lenore / most comments) is about sheltering kids from outside danger. This one is at all not about sheltering kids but about actually eliminating the danger, which I don’t see wrong in this case. No, I am against eliminating all dangers of childhood or the world in general. But the danger here is of a kid getting killed (which does not teach him to be aware of this danger next time – unlike normal childhood dangers), and danger of skyrocketing paranoia would this really explode, and kids being massively sheltered for ages in the area. As it didn’t explode (as expected), and it is a one-off event, it will be forgotten within a week
As for the toy, it could have been picked up and taken away by someone as well as blown up. There is no difference between the cases for the kid who lost the toy
Ash, that doesn’t even make sense. If the incident was handled in a sane mannter, the child would have had a good chance of getting the pony back.
However, there was zero chance of any child getting killed by this imagined danger.
I can conclude that in your area terrorism is not a factor (unlike some less safe places in the world), you’re lucky. I accept your point 🙂
@Joette Your sarcasm meter wasn’t broken. In my opinion the school and police overreacted. The chance of this being a bomb was about as big as a child escaping when it was actually blown up.
Come on, people! This is an excellent opportunity to teach the neighbouring children some responsibility. You know, you’d better not leave your toys scattered everywhere, or the Big Bad Bombsquad will come and blow them up…
Stuff and nonsense!
But as a kid, I loved blowing things up. Beat dismembering Barbie dolls. We had access to cherry bombs, M-80s, and, of course, the can of gasoline that was always in the garage. It’s all gone.
Ou sont les bombes d’antan?
Looks like just the bomb squad has the fun these days.
The video needs a young girl crying at the end to make it complete.
OK, I’m sorry, but this made me laugh. There’s something so surreal about a toy pony getting blown up by a bomb squad. I’d like to have seen Monty Python do this one, preferably with some silly walks thrown in. (With no lead-up… just silly walks and exploding toy pony)
And then there’s these comments(from the same person)…
#
People need to take things more seriously than they do ! This could of been a very serious situation in todays society. People have the right to of been nervous in this world we live in.
#
Inappropriate
With all the terroist problems in this country why would someone be so stupid to leave this expensive horse like this.? Wake up and have some respect for other people. Who needs this garbage? Get a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The comments are sad because this person is obviously terrified of a very unlikely threat, but I am enjoying the fact that she (?) goes by “Posey”… the name of a My Little Pony 😀
A few years ago, my car was broken into, and my backpack stolen. When the thieves realized there was nothing of value inside, they presumably threw it out of their car window – it was found on the side of the road in a business area. I know this because I got a call from police, after they received multiple 911 calls about a possible bomb and sent officers out to investigate.
The bomb squad did not end up getting involved, but they may as well have – as I could not prove that the backpack and most of the personal effects inside were mine, they could not return them to me (including a library book, which I ended up having to pay for, grrr)- the only things I got back were two letters inside that were addressed to me.
I don’t think it would ever occur to me to think something was a bomb, unless it was obviously actually a bomb. I can’t image being so paranoid as to think every abandoned stuffed animal or backpack has the potential to blow me up.
I have to admit, though, I really enjoyed watching that video.
—– “Once you see that it’s a stuffed animal, your mind starts racing with all kinds of … crazy stuff in the world,” Kilwein said.”
Really, your mind starts racing with crazy stuff when you see a stuffed pony? What kind of freaky childhood did you have? —–
I think somebody has seen Full Metal Jacket one time too many.
Jen, how rude on the part of the police. The library book obviously belonged to the library; they should have returned it to the owner.
@Nicola totally! I would have been tempted to pull over and stick the thing in the trunk. If I called the bomb squad for every suspicious whatever left on my street we’d have the bomb squad down here on a daily basis (and I live .3 miles from a school).
I don’t blame the bomb squad… not really. It was good practice at the least and by the time something arrives at the bomb squads desk they HAVE to do something, it’s not their job to differentiate what is and isn’t a real threat. But the hysteria was silly.
Geez, I have Koda the Dinosaur in my family room! I’m off to call the bomb squad!
Ash — no, none of those things could have happened because IT WASN”T A BOMB. And there was no reason to think it was a bomb. Thinking that things that aren’t bombs are bombs makes exactly zero people safer from terrorists.
Now if you were talking about something that actually might have been a bomb in some meaningful sense — like it looked like a bomb, or was connected to a bomb threat — then your “might have beens” make sense.
But as it is, your might have beens make no more sense than if someone had left a can of Coke out on the street and people started claiming that it “might have been” a bomb.
I agree that there really have been real-world incidents in which objects have been left out to be discovered and turned out to be bombs — but surely there is some kind of rational screening process that would have put that fear to rest without treating every large, lost toy like a bomb.
funny site:
http://www.innocentpony.com/innocentPony/
As a kid, I would have *loved* to see the cops come in and blow up stuff like that every day!
Actually, I think I’d still think that’s kind of neat.
I love the guy in the moon suit giving the thumbs-up over the remains of the stuffed pony! “Crisis averted… carry on, citizens!” If I lived in Florida, I’m sure I’d feel much safer today.
How can you say this has nothing to do with actual kids?
The kids were placed in “modified lock down” in their school.
I said this before – kids get notified and involved in every near by crime by being placed in LOCK DOWN every time something is amiss.
Some guy hits his wife, kids are placed in lock down. Cops are after a drug dealer, kids are placed in lock down. What is up with notifying little kids everytime something is going on?
What comes to mind it “Mighty fine police work, Lou.”
At the risk of sounding evil, the thought of some kid watching this beloved toy accidentally left behind while walking to school getting eradicated by the bomb squad makes me laugh. God this country is so stupid!
Something just occured to me about the “suspicious placement” of the toy…
My daughter has a very large ride-on pony in her room. Not a robotic one, but one of the ones that sits on giant springs and bounces. This one also makes galloping noises, and is Disney Princess themed. It was in brand-new condition when I got it…on the side of the road, in a residential neighborhood not far from my own. The people who lived there had that and a nice girls’ bike out on the curb with a “Free” sign on them. When I saw them, I pulled over, and since the man who lived in the house was outside, thanked him. Told him how much my daughter loves horses. He encouraged me to take the bike for her too; she’ll grow in to it before I know it!
I love curbside deals 🙂
But in this case, here was a very large toy horse on the side of the road. Maybe the poor exploding horse was out there for the same reason. Any toy that large is hard to dispose of when children outgrow it, and if it’s in good condition, you want to see someone else get enjoyment out of it. I would hate to think if I were to turn around and put my free horse back out on the curb of my house (which is near a school!) in a few years when my daughter is bigger, that it might get blown up!!
Oh, and sorry for the double post, but I had to add one more thing:
The Greeks are at it again! As if Troy wasn’t enough…we won’t let them invade Orlando! We have Bomb Squad now!
Have you seen the memorial site
http://www.innocentpony.com