Brushes with the law

[rev.redneck]

I usualy have no problems with police, I live on the very edge of a small town, there is no more houses behind my house and in the lowest part of town. Although they do drive by after an occasional salute. I also got new naighbors recently and was very concerned about that as the old ones didnt care, so the day they move in i fired 2-3 through the day. no cops, that was months ago!

 

 

Know about mmmm 10-12 years ago my brother and I would compress a two litre soda bottle (seal a valve stem in the cap, to 140 PSI.) use sparklers to ignite, burns hole in plastic, pops like giant balloon, where i live its legal and often had calls i was shooting guns.

they somtimes wathed me make and use one to make sure.

[jacob]

You did have it labeled as ORM-D and all that fun stuff right?

Yes i did, and they (the employees, i don't know about the postmaster) did look at pub52, i don't know why they couldn't figure it out.

[ST1DinOH]

ok i guess i'll join in here...

 

a few years back after i had purchased my first batch of HDPE tubes i built a 100 shot "coffin" rack (5x20 dangerous design asking for trouble) and filled them with brothers diy quads. then i fused the whole thing with a zig zag of slow visco.

 

this was for a friend of mines graduation party, took him 12 years to get his history degree so when it finaly happened we used it as an excuse to party and shoot some works.

 

so we drive this behemouth of a rack outinto the corn field, set up a bunch of other racks and about 25 cakes all around it, fuse it up with a lengthy run of visco, lightit and retreat back to my front porch to watch the show.

 

the show was supposed to last 10 minutes

 

25 minutes later quads are still going off one at a time (slow visco) and i'm getting real nervous.

 

despite living WAY out in the country, and having the longest responce time in the township i lived in, i was still getting paranoid that the cops would show up.

 

as soon as the last quad cleared the rack we (about 5 of us) ran out there with a wheel barrow and picked up everything, then dragged the rack back to the bushes around the back side of the house.

 

on the other side of the house we had a bonfire going and everyone was sitting around it (closer to the road) and suddenly 3 township cops roll up.

 

one gets out of his car and walks over to the bonfire...

 

my roomate was inside, alreadly completely tanked (his party) and i was still mostly sober because i was in charge of the pyro. so i walked over to the cop to try and diffuse the situation.

 

cop: "are you guys the ones out here lighting off all thoes fireworks"

 

me: "yeah we saw them, it looked like they were coming from the field over there somewhere"

 

cop: "yeah i saw the tail end of them when we were driving out here, but we weren't close enough to see where they were coming form...do you know who was shooting them"

 

me: "oh man you missed a nice show, whoever it was must have had a ton of stuff it went on for like 20 minutes"

 

cop: "so it wasn't you guys"

 

me: "like i said sir it was coming from the field over there somewhere but it looks like they stopped about 5 minutes ago"

 

cop: "ok well if you see anymore let us know"

 

me: "ok have a safe night"

 

*roommate returns from the house with a beer in each hand, see's the cop...

 

roomate: "OH WE"RE SORRY OFFICER IT'S MY GRADUATION PARTY AND WE JUST WANTED TO LIGHT....

 

me: HEY LEE...HELP ME GO GET SOME MORE FIRE WOOD FROM OVER THERE...OK....OK???

 

lol

 

the cop just looked at me knowing i just lied to him without lying to him and didn't feel like busting my balls i guess because he just said to have a nice night, and if we see the person lighting the fireworks to tell them they are done for the evening otherwise they are going to jail "wink wink"

 

got real lucky, i was handeling that cop perfectly untill my dumbass roomate walked out all sloshed trying to admit everything to the cop.

 

he's the kinda guy that thinks it's smart to wave at cops when you see them even if you are holding a lit joint in the other hand. not the brightest bulb in the box.

 

fortunatley the cop was cool about it, and luckily i never said that we weren't the ones lighting stuff...if i would have actually lied to the guy he probably would have been a real prick about it.

[NightHawkInLight]

he's the kinda guy that thinks it's smart to wave at cops when you see them even if you are holding a lit joint in the other hand. not the brightest bulb in the box.

I almost agree with how he acts around cops. All of my encounters with cops when I was doing something 'legally undesirable' just explaining why I was doing it and being respectful and friendly to them has gotten me out of it with a simple be more careful or the similar. I am however very fortunate to have the cops around that I do. Several of my neighbors are cops and don't mind any of the shells they hear, so long as it's not to late at night. It might be some comfort to them that I have the fire chief for my area right across the street and about 10 other firemen within 1.5 miles of my house

[ST1DinOH]

he's the kinda guy that thinks it's smart to wave at cops when you see them even if you are holding a lit joint in the other hand. not the brightest bulb in the box.

I almost agree with how he acts around cops. All of my encounters with cops when I was doing something 'legally undesirable' just explaining why I was doing it and being respectful and friendly to them has gotten me out of it with a simple be more careful or the similar. I am however very fortunate to have the cops around that I do. Several of my neighbors are cops and don't mind any of the shells they hear, so long as it's not to late at night. It might be some comfort to them that I have the fire chief for my area right across the street and about 10 other firemen within 1.5 miles of my house

i'm of the belief that i'd rather not be involved with cops in anyway shape or form. if i were doing something illegal i sure wouldn't want to draw ttention to myself.

 

the example i gave wasn't a fictional one, it actually happened.

 

when you are driving around in a smoke filled car smoking a joint looking like the cheech and chong mobile i don't think it very wise to go out of your way to wave at a cop.

 

any other circumstance you are correct, being cool and frindly will go a long way with cops. most of the time people are real dickheads twords them and they do appreciate it when you treat them with respect and don't give them a hard time for doing thier job.

 

but donb't wave "hello" at a cop when your smoking a joint...

 

i almost pimp smacked him.

[NightHawkInLight]

i'm of the belief that i'd rather not be involved with cops in anyway shape or form. if i were doing something illegal i sure wouldn't want to draw ttention to myself.

 

the example i gave wasn't a fictional one, it actually happened.

 

when you are driving around in a smoke filled car smoking a joint looking like the cheech and chong mobile i don't think it very wise to go out of your way to wave at a cop.Yeah I'm with you there.

Yeah I'm with you there. I do what I can to not draw attention, but when they do take notice that's where I do what I stated earlier and go into upstanding citizen mode.

[Picric acid DOES taste bitter!]

Hmmm, what did i write that upset the mods... cant remember. Ah well, a little more care next time, then, Edited May 12, 2008 by Picric acid DOES taste bitter!

[0nE.sh0t.kIll]

I haven't had any pyro related incidents with the police. Just dry ice bombs and throwing shit at people's cars. The people in my area are dicks and so are the cops. They told me I was lucky I wasn't being charged with having an explosive on park district grounds. I guess living in a suburb doesn't make it the best place to be making loud noises. Just gotta do a few large ones and find a new spot.

[Mumbles]

Interestingly enough with regards to dry ice bombs and "throwing shit at peoples car" cops tend to be dicks just about everywhere. My best advice to deal with the cops, and have them treat you well back, is to in general not be a dumbass.

[50AE]

One time I got caught by some the cops with a friend sitting on a bench in front of our apartment building, mixing flash. It was just to show my friend some pyro making, because we were bored. I took the chemicals and a scale. It was night. The chemicals were in small containers (50ml plastic).

So we just were mixing it, when a cop car showed on the road front of us. It was the night watch. My friend saw the car, but very lately and maybe the cops have seen us through their car windows while we were mixing. When I looked at the cop car, it was already stopped. We started hiding the chemicals behind our backs, but the cops got out of the car and came straight to us. I got a heavy heartbeating

The first cop was a woman. She asked us:

 

Cop1 : Good night, can you tell me what are you doing ?

 

Cop2 : You're mixing heroine, huh ?

 

Me : I was showing to my friend some chemistry experiments.. Hmm, self ignition with potassium permanganate and glycerine (lucky I had glycerine)

 

Cop2 (searching our stuff) : Well, I see here.. blackpowder, explosives..

 

Cop1 : Do you both know chemistry to work with this stuff ?

 

Me : .....

 

Cop1 : Do you live here ?

 

Me : Yes, me and my friend.

 

Cop2 : Hmm, you burned things here (checking black spots on the floor)

 

Me : So, is there something bad with us?

 

Cop2 : No, but we just want to be sure that everything's fine. We're doing our job.

 

Me : Ok

 

Cop1 : Everything's fine here. Be careful to do not put something on fire.

 

Me : Ok, have a good night.

 

Cop1 : Good night.

 

 

I was lucky that the cops were nice. Maybe because they were just a nightwatch, I don't know. But the cops in my country are less serious than these in US, some can be bribed with not much money, beacause many of them are shit payed and hate the government.

[hst45]

I haven't had any pyro related incidents with the police. Just dry ice bombs and throwing shit at people's cars. The people in my area are dicks and so are the cops.

Dude, I gotta tell ya, if I was a cop and saw you "throwing shit at peoples cars", I'd be a dick too. Actually, as a civilian, if you were throwing shit at MY car, I'd be throwing shit back at you.... small, lead bits of shit at a high rate of speed......

[WarezWally]

I hate cops with a passion!

 

About a year or two ago my brother came over and was interesting in my hobby, decided to give a demo with a small amount of BP in a film canister with the lid on. Made a few quickly and proceeded letting them off in the street, they were pretty good, light the fuse and watch the lid shoot off and reload. They didn't make much noise but we were having a good time talking loudly and whatnot.

 

Anyway, ten minutes later we decided to make a small BP salute and drive off to somewhere remote when a cap car pulls up. I attempted to throw the dodgy ass salute away as fast as I could but the cop spotted it and after 10 minutes of searching located it (didnt help that I denied throwing anything). I tried to sound as k3wl as possible and said it was some ground up sparklers. Gave me a nasty look and looked at out ID's and wrote down our names and telling us to pretty much fuck off or we will be fined. They were there due to a noise complaint.

 

Figured out it was the bastard neighbors, don't know why they decided to call the cops on us. I'm surprised they haven't called the cops on me again for entirely diffrent reasons, a few days ago they watched me adding impure potassium chlorate to boiling water outside on a portable gas stove and then later roughly cutting up the crystals. Got a weird and nervous look from them. Wouldn't be surprised if I get my door kicked down by cops looking for a meth lab.

 

What I learnt:

 

Neighbors are pricks

It pays to drive 10 minutes out of town when doing something.

[Arthur]

Remember that neighbours happen! If you cannot afford a plot with no neighbours then respect them! People are afraid that they will get caught up in a drug factory or a terrorist bomb factory. Drug dependancy is responsible for huge ammounts of crime as addicts steal to fund the habit. Terrorism is Global, in Africa it's tribal, in the former USSR it's Moscow Russians vs the southern republics There is also the fanatical Islam vs the world.

 

Have a shooting ground away from people where you have permission to shoot things.

[WarezWally]

Why should I respect someone who cannot put up with 10 minutes of low level noise at night and who don't have the balls to man up and complain to me directly and not run to the police?

[marks265]

Why should I respect someone who cannot put up with 10 minutes of low level noise at night and who don't have the balls to man up and complain to me directly and not run to the police?

If you swallow a little spit and concede to their side a little it may go a long ways. It could be a good way to end an arguement or misunderstanding and get what you want in the end. Being bull headed just shuts down communication and lets bad feelings fester. Try and talk to them a little on off topic stuff and then work your way in. Ya don't have to like them but you should do some talkin'! Been there done that myself. Good luck.

[Arthur]

1/ if the neighbours see you mixing white powders and processing them on a camp stove the local police may well turn you over to the drug enforcemant heavies or the counter terror people. You would be defending a drug making charge til proven otherwise. Possession is 9/10ths you had the chems they will have you behind bars.

 

2/ By annoying the neighbours you bring the amateur pyrotechnics and fireworks hobby into dis repute.

 

I'm sure that the police can find something to send you down for. Just don't give tham the idea to look at you.

[TheSidewinder]

Ladies and Gentlemen....

 

Let's keep this civil, please.

 

Thank you!

 

Back on-topic:

 

Wally,

 

it could have been said much more diplomatically, but they're right.

 

I'm very lucky in that I have neighbors ALL around me who love fireworks, and a week before every 4th of July they start asking if I'll be shooting stuff off again. I don't do anything but Class C, though, and for blocks around me I see a ton of folks doing the same thing.

 

Our local cops become deaf, dumb, and blind, and retreat to the 5-day long State-sponsored "Taste of Minnesota" festival that encompasses the 4th, for crowd control. Unless a complaint is made, they ignore fireworks. It's an uneasy truce, though. Shoot any other time of the year and they show up faster than if you'd been standing there screaming, "FREE DOUGHNUTS!!!"...

 

That said, I did have a neighbor once who I had to charm into being cool about it. When I was finally done with him, he was buying stuff too. Fireworks are worse than drugs, lol....

 

Get the neighbors ALL on your side, and you won't need to drive anywhere for the smaller stuff.

 

If the cops ever showed up here, I know my neighbors would all say "Bang? Fireworks? Oh yeah, I heard something over that way", and then point in a random direction.

[0nE.sh0t.kIll]

By "throwing shit" at cars I mean the little berries you find on trees. No marks, dents or damage on cars, but people flip and call the cops and the cops take it as if we smashed the cars up. I would never actually damage someone's property, just mess with it.

[jacob]

throwing shit at peoples cars

 

I don't know why, but I find this sentence hilarious, I do hope they were stuck up snobs or people you didn't like.

 

No encounters with the gestapo yet, (knock on wood) but I do hate cops in general.

[Arthur]

Sorry but wherever you are if you don't get noticed you will NOT get picked up.

 

Start by annoying the neighbours they will watch you til they find something to pull you for - then they will discover more, dig further, and find even more. Then you can't get out of the hole that is opening up where they are digging.

 

Most people like the pretty side of fireworks candles, fountains, stars, etc however ground salutes and craters in the yard annoy many folk. I wouldn't consider a few bangs a firework display.

 

Act calm and discrete, act the grey man! then they will never notice you.

[0nE.sh0t.kIll]

throwing shit at peoples cars

 

I don't know why, but I find this sentence hilarious, I do hope they were stuck up snobs or people you didn't like.

 

No encounters with the gestapo yet, (knock on wood) but I do hate cops in general.

If I didn't like them before, I definitely don't like them now!

[justanotherpyro]

If I didn't like them before, I definitely don't like them now!

Think about it from their perspective. Someone is throwing something at your car for no real reason other than to be delinquent. I knew some people in high school who were telling stories about throwing tomatoes at cars driving by on a back road. I thought it was mildly humorous, untill a few years later when I was driving late at night and something suddenly hit my car and almost made me lose control. When I saw it at home, sure enough a noticeable dent and some bits and pieces of a potato. Remember that when you are doing something you see it coming. A salute, even a small one, that all of a sudden goes off without knowing about it can be unsettling.

 

I pissed off the neighbors a few times, and even have had cops show up. In the end I made deals with the neighbors, and when cops are involved I just have to prove to them that I'm not an irresponsible kewl blowing up mailboxes or shooting paintball guns at houses but that I'm just testing a few things and its my legitimate hobby. If you try and hide something it shows neighbors or cops that you have something to hide, if you are upfront an honest it doesn't seem so shady, but because it is illegal doesn't mean that its a good idea to try and draw attention obviously.

[WarezWally]

1/ if the neighbours see you mixing white powders and processing them on a camp stove the local police may well turn you over to the drug enforcemant heavies or the counter terror people. You would be defending a drug making charge til proven otherwise. Possession is 9/10ths you had the chems they will have you behind bars.

 

2/ By annoying the neighbours you bring the amateur pyrotechnics and fireworks hobby into dis repute.

 

I'm sure that the police can find something to send you down for. Just don't give tham the idea to look at you.

I don't have anything even related to drug manufacture, it would only take them a few minutes to figure that out.

 

Since that incident I have not done anything to annoy the neighbors at all and I intend to keep it that way until I have the money to move to somewhere more remote

 

The neighbors on the other side are cool, told him I made rocket motors and other fun things and he though that was great, didn't mind me testing things within reason (eg, don't set his yard on fire) but sadly due to the idiots on the other side of the yard I cant even test a star on the ground

[ST1DinOH]

throwing shit at peoples cars

 

dude...

 

let me share a little story with you.

 

when i was a stupid kid, i threw shit at peoples cars, i thought it was hilarious.

 

you know what happens to people that do shit like that?

 

when they get older, and buy a new car, stupid little bastards throw shit at it.

 

kids i went to school with who stole car stereos...got thier cars stolen

 

ect...

 

karma is a bitch, remember that.

 

now fast forward to a few years ago...picture me (6'9" 300 pounds +/- former football player and club bouncer) driving down the road and some little punk throws an egg at my car.

 

i reach in my back seat, give my co2 tank a twist, rattle my view loader, and unload about 200 paintballs at him and his friends standing around on thier skateboards smoking cigarettes.

 

i drove away, around the corner, dumped another tube of paint, and circled the block.

 

twice

 

all in all i probably painted that kid (when i say kid i'm talking 17, 18, 19) head to toe with at least 50-60 balls. got his friends too (guilt by association).

 

at one point they were trying to use thier skateboards as shields...it was the funniest thing ever. little jerks were balling thier eyes out.

 

now flip the script, remove me, add some little thug wanna be with a stolen firearm.

 

instead of welts and a bruised ego these kids could have been killed.

 

now flip that script again and replace the driver with a young mother having a stressfull day with her newborn baby in the back seat, not paying attention to the road (radio, cell phone, make-up, baby) and your "shit" hits her window, causing her to crash her car and kill her newborn baby all because you thought it'd be funny to "throw shit at cars"

 

i'm just speaking from 30years of life experience as a former/reformed shithead who did the same things as a kid. don't do it...you'll regret it.

 

Why should I respect someone who cannot put up with 10 minutes of low level noise at night and who don't have the balls to man up and complain to me directly and not run to the police?

 

as much as i hate to say this...i do agree with you to a certian extent. provided of course you went up to them, introduced yourself, and explained that you are a hobbyist pyrotechnician and aspiring professional pyrotech and you just didn't want to alarm them with any of your expiriments.

 

sounds stupid huh?

 

believe it or not, being up front and explaining the situation like that to them will not only diffuse the situation, but they will have more respect for you as a responsible young adult doing chemistry experiments as opposed to some little punk lighting of homemade explosives.

 

see what i'm saying?

 

as much as it sucks to have to pre-explain yourself...it's the smart way to do things.

 

if you take 5 minutes out of your life to intorduce yourself and earn thier respect, it'll save you hours of harrassment in the future having to explain yourself to the cops.

 

i know guys on other pyro forums who canvas the neighborhood days/weeks in advance to let everyone know that there will be fireworks. it's a flier placed on thier door that invites them to attend the party and enjoy the fireworks, and at the bottom there's usually a note to pet owners that there may be loud noises that could possibly irritate thier pets...so a doggie volume may come in handy. there's also a phone number if anyone has any questions or concernes.

 

and guess what...

 

no cops, no hassles.

 

people are a hole lot friendlier when they know whats going on.

 

or if you want to be a pessimist about it...they are less likely to be jerks about it when they have advanced warning.

 

they are also more likely to call you rather than the cops if there is ever a noise problem.

 

just something to consider.

 

kill em with kindness bro, you never know you may find out your "asshole neighbor" works 3rds and was only being an "asshole" because you keep waking him up...but if you'd only wait till later when he's awake, he'd bring out the private stash of his m-80's and contribute to the fun.

 

after doing the right thing...if they still call the cops on you...

 

yeah, they are pricks and aren't worthy of your respect.

 

but it is a two way street, and even though you aren't calling the cops on them, they aren't doing boarderline illegal shit in the front yard. so you gotta break the ice and prempt the situation.

[0nE.sh0t.kIll]

ST1DinOH, I understand where your coming from. It's just when your with your friends, bored, you don't know what to do so you go mess with people. I've often thought that I'm gonna be re-paid when I'm older, but just shove it out of my mind.

 

As a side note, I'm not dumb enough to sit there and wait to be pelted with paintballs. I get the hell outta there; but I think I won't be getting the hell into it anymore. I'll try and find something else to do with my time.