[710] in Humor
HUMOR: Trust ACME
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Fri Feb 3 11:26:58 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 1995 11:18:09 EST
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: 3 Feb 95 09:06:00 EST
From: "JS::TERANG" <TERANG%JS.decnet@js3-vax.hanscom.af.mil>
Subject: A funny thing happened...
This little story was forwarded to me by my friend and frat bro
Sanj. Sounds like he's got a friend with an interesting timepiece.
Thought you might enjoy this.
Greg
From: SSIVA@HQGATE.ORBITAL.COM
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 95 19:02:09 EST
Below, you will find excerpts from a few email messages on our company
bulletin board (some of you may know Matt - MIT/Aero Astro), regarding an
incident that I thought was hilarious - right out of a comedy! I was sort
of involved in it, and thought you guys might find it amusing.
Sanj
----------------------------------------------------------
This is Matt talking:
(For those who don't know, I have a clock that looks very
much like a bomb -- several sticks wrapped together, with a
small circuit board, numeric display, battery, and fake
detinator -- that I got as a gift a couple of years ago.) I
found out that while I was in California working up near San
Jose earlier this month, a maintenance worker came into my
apartment to change the filter in the furnace. He saw my
clock sitting in the living room -- where it's been ever
since I moved in 6 months ago -- and thought it was a real
bomb. So he called the manager, who came in and took a look
at it. The manager apparently used to be in the Army, and he
also thought it was a real bomb, so he called the police.
The police came, looked at it, then evacuated my entire
apartment building and the buildings on either side of it,
forcing people out of their apartments, and called the bomb
squad. Many people couldn't go to work since they had been
kicked out of their apartments (this was around 10am on a
Thursday), and were milling around the rental office, so the
workers there sent someone out for doughnuts, and had to
call people's workplaces to explain why they couldn't show
up to work that morning. They may have even blocked off
part of South Lakes Drive and/or Colt's Neck. They also
pulled my rental application and saw that my job description
said something about working at an aerospace company with
electronics. They sent some uniformed officers to OSC who
went around asking people if I had access to explosives and
other vague questions without saying what the problem was.
The bomb squad showed up at my apartment, and they went in
with their big blast shields and everything and at some
point realized that it was not a real bomb, but all I know
is they did take it, and I apparently have to call the
police to get my clock back.
One of the funny things is, I didn't even find out that this
had happened until 4 days after I got back from California!
Sanj went to the rental office looking for an apartment, and
put me down as a reference on the application, and they
said, "You know Matt Machlis? Is he back in town?" And
they told him about everything that happened, and then he
called me. I hadn't even noticed that my clock was gone.
All of the information I have so far is from what the people
in the rental office told me. They said there were stories
about what happened on the front page of the Reston
Connection (a free local weekly paper), and in the Reston
Times (local daily), and made the local NBC evening news. I
went to the library looking for the newspapers with the
articles but they didn't have the issues I was looking for.
I still haven't had a chance to call the police to get my
clock back, and I'm not sure exactly how to word my request
when I do call!
Matt
-------------
I have the article which was printed in the Reston Times.
It's hilarious (knowing that it was Matt's place). Matt gave
me permission to give the paper his name and phone number,
which I did, and one of the reporters, Susan, will be
calling him to do a follow up. The picture in the paper has
the "bomb" sitting on top of one of those bomb retriever
robots! Does that mean that Matt had a robot rummaging
through his home?
Rick
--------------
If anyone has copies of the Reston Times, Reston Connection,
or any other paper with articles about this event, please
let me know (x5491)!
I talked to a reporter from the Reston Times yesterday. She
asked me about what the clock was, where I got it, how long
I had had it, what I thought about the whole fiasco, when
and how I found out about what had happened, etc. So I
think they're going to do a follow-up story. If anyone sees
this story, I'd appreciate if you'd save the paper for
me.
I also got a call from the officer in the Fairfax County
bomb squad who got called in to my apartment. He asked me
where I got it and what I had it for. Then he told me about
what had happened... the maintenance worker saw it and "ran
for his life," then called the manager, a "former explosives
expert" who saw the clock and "ran for his life," and called
the police, and they evacuated the buildings and called in
the guy I was talking to. He said it took him about a
minute to determine that it wasn't dangerous, and made a
comment that it was pretty realistic looking. He asked if I
wanted it back, and I said yes, and he said he'd have to try
to get it back together and give me a call back. Apparently
he works in a station in Annandale, but some of the pieces
are in Fairfax. He was pretty amused by the whole thing,
and when I apologized for what he had gone through, he said,
"That's OK, I got to be a star for a day and got my name in
the paper."
I'll let people know when I get the clock back and make it
available for viewing (for a nominal fee).
-Matt
--------------
A few other twists to this incident:
1. Rick reminded me that the "Bomb" actually says "ACME
Bomb" on it (like in the cartoons) - making it that much
more ludicrous!
2. I was feeding Matt's cat, etc., while he was in CA, and
was going into his apartment during lunch sometimes. Can
you imagine what they would have done, if they saw a
'Terrorist Looking' (this is what people tell me, anyway)
guy walk into that apartment? This fiasco started around
10:45 a.m., apparently.
3. When the cops came to OSC, asking whether Matt had
access to explosives, I saw them. I also noticed that my
immediate boss and his boss were secretive about phone calls
that they received while I was in the room, that were
obviously about Matt, and the police. So, I told my boss
that I was going to Matt's place to feed his cat, etc. But
he still didn't tell me anything. So, I actually called and
asked Matt whether he knew about anything going on at his
apartment, which he didn't.
I was actually pissed off at all three of them (because I
thought they knew, and didn't tell me - risking my butt!),
until I found out later that Matt knew nothing, and my
bosses only knew that the cops wanted to find out whether
Matt had access to explosives! Of course, I don't expect
them to tell me that type of information.
4. They did a follow up story in the Reston Times (Rick's
-above- girlfriend works at this newspaper), which gave more
details, and mentioned both Matt's and my names.
Sanj
