Flashlight bombs puzzle Phoenix authorities

PHOENIX (AP) -- Flick the switch on these flashlights and they don't light up. They blow up.

Three of these bombs have exploded within the last month in the Phoenix area, causing minor injuries to five people and raising fears of more serious ones.

Police still have no idea who is behind them and have taken the unusual step of putting up 22 billboards across the sprawling metro area to warn residents about discarded flashlights.

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The first bomb was spotted by a passerby on May 13 in a suburb just west of Phoenix. It was sitting behind a palm tree in a strip mall and blew up when it was clicked on.

The next day, about 10 miles away, a landscaper found a flashlight in an irrigation ditch. It, too, exploded when he flicked the switch, authorities said.

The third bomb exploded on May 24 at a Salvation Army distribution center near downtown Phoenix and about 11 miles from the first one.

An employee detonated the device while sorting through donations, forcing 120 people in the store to evacuate. Jon Bierd, production manager at the facility, said the worker suffered a small abrasion to his forehead.

So you pick up a discarded flashlight and it goes boom. Funny, I don't see many discarded flashlights laying around. Come to think of it, I can never recall ever finding a "discarded" flashlight.

DON'T pick up a "discarded" flashlight!

EDIT: and you most DEFINITELY don't want to pickup a discarded fleshlight...

I live in phoenix, and thought this was just a stupid response to this story....not OP, the msm....blew it way out of proportion.....one of these went off, and the hand of the guy that was holding it, zero real damage, a bit what looked like if you held his hand under hot water......it is probably a bunch of kids with too much time on their hands and not enough sense to know better.

they're coming for our flashlights

Well they must not be very powerful explosions if they were being held and didn't cause death or major injury. It sounds like this is something a kid could make with some black powder from fireworks or something. I obviously do not know that, and they very well could be ammonium nitrate or something entirely different, but my point is that they don't sound all that powerful.

But that doesn't mean it is okay to go around "attempting" to blow someone up. It is just weird imo. The person either doesn't know what they are doing, or they don't want to kill anyone, given what I think I understand of the situation. Maybe someone with the same tendencies and ideas of a serial killer, just on a watered-down scale perhaps? Or maybe just a horrible bomb-maker. If that is the case, they better catch him before he hones his craft. I should say he/she, although it is probably a male. Can't remember any major female bombers that came after the Weather Underground, and other radical groups up till the 70's.

I hope they catch whoever is doing this. These spots sound odd as well, and are likely just random places. I would be willing to bet that they were left in these places because it would have been easy to plant them without anyone seeing anything, and then later linking that thought back to a person or automobile or something. I suppose we will see. If anyone sees someone planting a flashlight anywhere in public, go turn it on to make sure it isn't explosive...wait, no. Don't do that. Call the police. I know this is in a certain area, but who knows if a copycat flashlight bomber may arise.

Originally posted by pointr97
I live in phoenix, and thought this was just a stupid response to this story....not OP, the msm....blew it way out of proportion.....one of these went off, and the hand of the guy that was holding it, zero real damage, a bit what looked like if you held his hand under hot water......it is probably a bunch of kids with too much time on their hands and not enough sense to know better.

I also live in the land of colorful sunsets,
any idiot knows that you don't pick up things in the desert,
without understanding the dangers.
What is next from the media,
don't be picking up rattlesnakes?

We live in a part of America that will let drug runners walk away from backpacks full of drugs,
and watch to see if some American,
is dumb enough to stop and pick it up!
Wake Up America!

My neighbors buy bales of horse feed,
and the Feds will cut open their alfalfa,
claim it is drugs,
while the real drugs are run by in the wash.

So if you do see a flashlight,
you can be sure the real haul,
is has or is passing by.

I will shut up go over to
WWW.Facebook.com/flashlights
and post, dislike, or thumbs down.
As we all know we only have 2 choices in America
and that is to go to Facebook, and thumbs up, or down,
no-one wants to hear an opinion anymore!