First, vandals hit the I-205 bike path, making off with metal and copper from light fixtures. Now, someone has set off an improvised explosive device (IED).
From Oregon City News:
Authorities are searching for the person or people responsible for setting off an improvised explosive device (IED) on a bicycle path that runs parallel to I-205 last night.
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said the device was ignited on a bike path that runs along the highway near Strawberry Lane on the west side of the highway…”
Potholes are one thing, but this is crazy!
I know a lot of readers use that path regularly. If anyone saw anything, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office is still trying to find the suspect (or suspects) responsible for this crime.
If you have any information, please contact the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 503-723-4949.
Thanks for reading.
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\”IED\”? Could this be the work of Sunni Extremists?? Did the terrists win??
Bah, I hate this post-9/11 militarization newspeak.
Anyhow, from the photos of the exploded 2-liter I saw, it was a dry-ice bomb. While potentially dangerous, it remains a pretty pedestrian teenage stunt. Not exactly something that\’ll take out a HMMV.
But you all should panic anyhow.
Wow if I was a kid, I think something would be wrong with me if I didn\’t set off stuff that goes BOOM. The metal fixtures can be attributed to Oregon\’s lax approach to drug addiction.
I used to do this kind of thing all the time when I was a kid. And an out-of-the-way bike path would\’ve been the perfect spot.
But yeah, \”IED\”? C\’mon!
I\’m guessing that Jonathan is reporting as information is available and trying to be as accurate as possible. Give the guy a break.
BTW I\’m not familiar with the kind of dry ice that creates a bright flash but hey, what do I know?
Excerpt from the news story below:
A sheriff’s deputy was driving southbound on the highway around 9:30 p.m. when he witness a flash and a plume of light that stretched across the highway
Jonathan;
You might also want to mention that there was someone who strung a line across the 205 path a few years ago. I don\’t remember much about it, but that was pretty scary.
This path is minimally used, so it\’s very attractive to folks who want to vent their frustrations without anyone seeing it.
@Zaphod #5
Check it:
http://www.katu.com/news/local/13666137.html
Reminds me of the IEDs I used to make when I was a kid: crimp a few match heads inside .22 shell casings, space a dozen of them about 6 ft. apart on the trolley tracks, then wait for the trolley.
BANG! BANG! BANG!, etc. Always good for a laugh, especially when the motorman stopped the trolley. Then it was hunker down, lay low, wait \’em out.
But, hell, that was more than fifty years ago. Al Qaida didn\’t exist then, and Americans were slightly less paranoid–which, come to think of it, are good things, otherwise I\’d still be sweating it out in jail.
Years ago I was running on the 1-205 bike path in the dark and I was passed by a motorcycle with his lights off going very fast. because of the traffic on I-205, I didn\’t hear him coming until he was on top of me.
zaphod – the release from a c02 (dry ice, or good ol baking soda and vinegar) soda bottle \”bomb\” would most likely be a cloud of fine vapor, which, reflected by lights at 930pm, could *easily* be mistaken for a \”flash\”.
if it *were* a flash of light (implying the release of heat), that bottle would likely be a LOT less recognizable.
The metal fixtures are way up the path in Multnomah County, near Rocky Butte – the IED was in Clackamas County about 3 blocks outside of Gladstone (Strawberry Lane goes from the Oatfield hill neighborhoods over to 82nd Drive near the Safeway distribution center and south of the Clackamas Fred Meyer). Two totally separate incidents.
CCSO will likely find out what\’s going on, especially if it continues – that stretch of the I-205 path is very visible to deputies, and CCSO deputies drive up and down that segment continuously (it is the most direct route between North Precinct and the County Jail).
Beavis and Butthead are now classified as terrorists setting off IEDs.
Yeah, the terrorists have won.
When I was a kid and blowing shit up, I was an idiot.
Blow up a 2 liter bottle these days (boooooring) and you\’re Osama freakin Bin Laden.
I second Robert Dobbs;
\”I hate this post-9/11 militarization newspeak.\”
I\’m as against the militarization and fascist trammeling of civil liberties as the next guy. OK, way more than the next guy. I\’m actually working on a ballot measure to outlaw warrantless surveillance under the Oregon Constitution, if that tells you anything.
But …
I don\’t care what you did as a kid or even that this BS hasn\’t hurt anyone (yet). I don\’t want people blowing sh!t up on the damn bike path. If the PPB is looking for something to do, a convenient venue to drop the hammer of State power on some anti-social moron\’s head, this is it. This is appropriate use of state power because it addresses, without political consideration, behavior that directly inhibits the pro-social behavior of cycling in our fair City.
Yes Beavis, blowing stuff up is fun. Go do it somewhere other than my public right-of-way.
Whoa the pigs must be totally bored over there. when i was a kid me and a bunch of friends made dozen of dry ice bombs and we through them into the public tennis courts and into peoples back yards an nobody ever heard anything about it.
After seeing the photo it seems clear that it was a fizzy mentos type rather tame prank. But the initial reference from Oregon City News surely painted the picture of something more significant. Bubbles of Mass Destruction I suppose. {sigh}
J, let\’s hold off any shark jumping, okay? 🙂
Bombing a bike path–I wonder what Tim Eyman or Lars Larson could know about that, hmmmm?
That looks like it could have done some real damage! I hope the 14 year olds, I mean terrorists are sent to GITMO for some waterboarding and drills to the knees!
Please call (503)723-4949 and give them a tip! GO FIGHT SOME REAL CRIME!
Portlands friendliness with improvised explosives and deterrence of police investigations of them is exactly why I moved here!
😀
damn kids, setting off dry ice bombs on public paths…
post 14, +1