Gotta disagree with you FAB...

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I give 'em a 2

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'YARD SALE'!!!

How reassuring is that - no guarantee of it being an inactive grenade.

10/10 to the cops and ems dudes - and thats a lot coming from me.

jeeze, I must have slept through all the action last night. first it was a mugging on Tuesday and now a bomb scare last night. Anyone want to make a prediction on what tonights excitement will bring?
1. maybe we'll see a high speed police chase ala OJ Simpson
or possibly 2. a return of the hamilton park killer pit bull

As a civil servant in the Emergency Services profession, I would commend the EMT/Paramedic for his/her actions.

There are plenty of people out there (white, black, brown, purple, etc.) that are not of a sane mind. I would have done the exact same thing in that situation. Don't blame the cops for doing their job. Suppose it was your neighbor who had a real grenade in his house. You would be praising the PD & EMS for their swift actions.

Someone else mentioned it earlier.. Do you know for sure that the device was not active? It could have had a device hidden inside it. Common sense always prevails. Not knowing anything about you or your history, the PD did what they felt necessary to protect lives (and property). If anything, you owe all your neighbors much more than an apology.

Oh, and if you are complaining of going to work on 2 hours sleep, maybe you should have waited till after work to write about your experience on this blog.

Next time, think before you act.

I heard from a reliable source that they also saw a dauschund's head in a Ziplock bag in the fridge.

Seriously dude, next time, before you call the Man, hide your weapons / porn/ bong / Ron Paul buttons.

- Loser

OK, here it is:

http://www.1010wins.com/Jersey-City-S ... Just-Paperweight-Grenades

1010 WINS
Posted: Thursday, 25 October 2007 8:46AM

Jersey City Scare -- Just Paperweight Grenades

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- Some neighbors in Jersey City were forced from their homes during a bomb scare Thursday morning.

1010 WINS reporter Steve Sandberg reported that a man with a medical problem called for an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived at the Fifth Street home they noticed what appeared to be grenades.

The bomb squad arrived, the man -- identified as Jason Slack -- was removed from the home, and they searched the property.

1010 WINS AUDIO: Jason Slack Talks About the Misunderstanding

It turns out that the grenades were just paperweights that the man bought at a yard sale.

Neighbors were allowed back in their homes a few hours after the incident began.

Click this link to hear interview;

http://www.1010wins.com/play_window.p ... e=Episode&audioId=1086810

----------------------------------

http://www.wnbc.com/news/14421374/detail.html

Grenades Found In Jersey City Apartment

October 25, 2007

WNBC -- NEW YORK -- Bomb squads responded to a home in Jersey City Thursday after medical responders discovered grenades inside an apartment.

According to police, the resident of the apartment had called EMS because he thought he was having a heart attack.

Emergency crews responded and saw two grenades sitting on his kitchen table, police said.

The man told authorities he had bought the grenades at a yard sale and insisted they were not live.

Bomb squads closed off the roads near the apartment.

They also found the grenades to be dead, police said.

Slacky, I am so sorry for your troubles, and I hope that you find a way to relieve your stress. Maybe it will help you to know that even though this was a horrendous ordeal, you now have perhaps the BEST STORY EVER.

It is a shame that this is what we have become--a society living in fear, expecting the worst, unable to use reason. Yeah, there are bad people out there who want to create havoc, but to handcuff you to the bed in a hospital over the discovery of two decommissioned grenades is, well, approaching Kafka.

Write a journal about your experience. It will help you deal with it. If you have kids, you can tell them all about how this country went crazy before they were born. They can read the journal and use parts of it for their civics classes.

Thank you for letting us know what was going on, Slacky. I live on this block and was wondering what could inspire all those cops to start banging on doors and screaming at 3:30am. At first I thought it was the recycling guys (that's not unusual in their case), then realized it was a night early for that...

In any case, I have to agree with what was said earlier - wouldn't it have been great to have all those cops there 2 nights ago when that poor girl was beaten and mugged? There's actually a lot of REAL crime happening these days...

Side note, didn't we just HAVE a bomb scare around the corner a month ago?

Were you read your Miranda rights?

I don't know if this helps or hurts, but I did hear about this (and heard the sound byte of you) on 1010 WINS this morning after driving hubby to the airport at a ridculously early hour.

Fame!

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Sorry this happened to you, but for what it's worth, it's kind of the best story ever.

Are you of an ethnicity that would cause suspicion? Not trying to start a race debate but I am curious because you mention it. Would be fun to add racial profiling to the list of JC civil servant crimes against humanity.

Get some rest!

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I hope you never get robbed and some dumb-ass punk doesn't throw it on the street or park for some fun.

Having no crystal ball on your mental state and if by chance I was doing work for you and you showed me a grenade, why would I take your word for it that it was a fake. Just like a punk with a fake gun - how would a cop know if its fake?
In my opinion, you are playing with fire, and yes I've been in a few houses to do work, with some real nut jobs in them with a huge collection of replica knifes and swords on display that anyone walking in can grab and play with.

If you think the grenades are harmless and don't deserve any reaction if some-one was to see it in your home, then walk around with it around your neck to the cop station or any public area.
Once you invite the 'public' into your home why should they react any differently when they see a grenade.

If I recall, there was a rpg or bazooka dumped on someone front lawn that generated a stink.

Maybe the lesson here is if you want or need these sorts of toys, then keep them out of sight when emergency services arrive.

I am glad someone is finally addressing this problem.
I used to live on 5th street, and I would get bombed all the time. I used whiskey though. I'm not sure what this "grenade" thing is.

No news yet but I will keep an eye -- maybe you will be lucky and they will never write anything.

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Are you going to get help for the panic attacks? I am sure that also played against you with the emergency workers and the cops.

"Obviously they suspected I might try and detonate the grenade by phone, which if you ask me is pretty implausible."

The only thing that is obvious is that you have stated that the grenades were not live based on your belief that they were not. Implausibility: As an eyewitness to a bombing attack in Kosovo, I can tell you that sending a text message to an old Nokia cell phone with leads wired to the ringer is an excellent way to detonate a bomb remotely. They aren't overreacting. It bothers the hell out of me that you can use your cellphone in the Amtrak tunnels to Penn Station.

The police must have speculated that there was an arms cache in your apartment, and the hand grenades, even if deactived, were just the tip of the iceberg. In a perfect world they would have politely asked to have a look around before evacuating the 'hood. Sorry to hear about the hassle, but there is a lesson to be learned here.

Last night as I watch what appears to be every squad car in the JC force pile up at the intersection of 5th and Jersey, I couldn't help but think of the recent postings of people begging for more police patrol in hopes of preventing muggings and other crimes happening in the neighborhood. I'm slightly annoyed to hear the reason for their gathering - I guess the local govt philosophy has become a microcosm of the fed's in that "terrrorism" is the only thing worth paying any attention to whatsoever ... Its not fair to say that more police patrol would stop crime altogether, and I'm certainly not advocating for an overbearing police presence. However, when there appears to be little-to-no police presence in the downtown area but they seem to have no trouble gathering 30 cops to sit around and shoot the sh-- for an hour at 3 in the morning, a moderate patrol doesn't seem so implausible.

i have mixed emotions about this.

the thing is, if he didn't say anything, and the grenades WERE real, and you blew up the building the next day, he would never have been able to live with himself. better safe than sorry?

i can't entirely blame the paramedic, but i think the cops went a bit overboard. after all, their actions were entirely based on spec. I don't think having someone stand in the rain barefoot for 30 minutes is exactly ''innocent until proven guilty" behavior. hell, they could have atleast thrown you in the back of a heated squad car.

I can testify that these old grenades can be bought at just about any army surplus store. In many states you can by old bazookas RPGs and other old cool stuff.

I agree that people are too up tight post 9/11. A little common sense and communication could have avoided all this.

WoW, A Mugging the other night and a Bomb Scare Last night. Can't wait to see what arises on 5th and Jersey tonight....

I suppose you should judge yourself lucky no to have wound up renditioned to Guantanamo for several years without trial.
We now live in a Lewis Carrol world of topsy turvy insanity thanks to George W. Bush and his power hungry henchman.

Remember, "We have nothing to feart but FEAR itself." That meaningful phrase of FDR has never been more apt.

Hey, 2 buildings fell dozen 6 years ago. Yes terrible...but now it's time to let go of the reign of terror.

Well for a start you'd never be working for me because I don't employ morons and when I made the comment about bleaters I had you in mind.

What exactly am I kidding you about?
How would it get from my house to grove street?
How is something sitting in my house akin to someone pulling a fake gun on a cop?
If you saw fake or real gun in someone's house would you call the cops then?

Like I said you can buy these in the army and navy - google deactivated grenade.

Are you kidding me - If I was doing work for you and saw grenades I'd call the cops. Get rid of those things - lunatics don't have that tattooed on their foreheads and you don't want to be labelled as one.

Imagine the reaction if one of those grenades was left and found at the Grove St. station.

I think that the parametics did the right thing - they don't know you, your mental state or if the grenades were live or not - regardless if you say they weren't.

Think about when you here a guy getting killed by cops who pulls a fake gun on them!

I suppose I should post this before Grove Path posts the inevitable write up in the Journal. There was a bomb scare on 5th street tonight and you, gentle reader, are about to read the full unexpurgated facts from someone who was not only there but the unwilling focus of this cruel twist of fate.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am the mad bomber of 5th street.

Backstory

About 3 weeks ago I did my usual Saturday rounds of the various yard sales in downtown Jersey City. I moved here from the UK about a year ago and one of my favourite pastimes has become combing the streets for old vinyl, Americana and the odd and unusual detritus of people's lives.
On this particular day, I think on third street, I picked up a couple of hand grenades some guy had been using as paper weights. Two dollars a piece. These were the old fashioned pineapple grenades and were not live, they had a hole all the way through the centre of the grenade where I imagine the charge once was.
I subsequently learned that these are not rare and can be bought from most Army and Navy stores.

http://www.1starmy.com/viewproduct.asp?Productno=544

Present Day


I've been under a heap of stress lately. Family problems and two jobs consume every waking minute of my life. This morning I left my house at 7am for one job and arrived home at 1am from another, as you can imagine I was dog tired and immediately hit the sack.
I woke up at about 3am, short of breath and with this crazy tingling sensation pulsating through my limbs. I waited about 5 minutes to see if it would pass, but as it seemed to get worse I dialled 911.
An ambulance arrives and two paramedics enter my house. They take me out to the ambulance to check me out and tell me I'm just having a panic attack, something I suffered from many years ago. I immediately recognised it for what it was and felt a little foolish at having called them out. I was very apologetic.
One of the paramedics asked me about the hand grenades, were they real? I said yes, they are real but they are not live. I believe I was very clear about this.

I decide not to go to the hospital, return to my house and my bed. Ten minutes later I hear motors outside and see flashing lights. Assuming I have mistakenly been sent another ambulance I got outside, barefoot, to inform them of their mistake.
Well the ambulance was there as well as dozens of cops. One shouts at me to stay where I am and put my hands above my head, I of course comply. I am frisked and handcuffed. I am questioned about the grenades and I tell my story. Then it gets a little more ridiculous. My cell phone is taken from me and handed to a police officer who is instructed to not let me have it under any circumstances. Obviously they suspected I might try and detonate the grenade by phone, which if you ask me is pretty implausible.
I am asked if I have any other weapons, as far as I am concerned I don't have any weapons. Then the incredible - Are there any trip wires in the house?

I am marched barefoot in the cold rain to the end of the street where I stand, freezing, for about half an hour. I realise that they are evacuating my neighbours from their houses, I believe they evacuated the entire block between Jersey and Coles.
Eventually I am taken to JC Medical Centre, handcuffed to a bed and told I am about to get a psychiatric examination!!!
I see the ambulance guy who caused this whole mess and I ask him why he did it? He knew I was sick already and I told him the grenade was not active. He said something about it being his neighbourhood and he had to protect it, I don't know if he meant he would not have done the same had it not been his neighbourhood or if it was a reference to my ethnicity.

Eventually the bomb squad, I believe with the aid of some sort of pressurized dome, verify that the grenades are not live - something you or I could tell by picking them up and looking at them. I am released and arrive home around 5.30 am.


So first of all I would like to apologise to all my neighbours who were inconvenienced by this crazy series of events. I did everything I could to try and avoid this situation escalating, I was as cooperative and helpful as I could have possibly been. Even though this was not my fault I really do, sincerely apologise from my heart. If I were you I'd be cursing me too.

Secondly a big F you to the ambulance driver. I called 911 for help, I thought I was dying. This cock took a stressed out, vulnerable individual that he was supposed to help and saw his chance to be some sort of hero. If there is any sort of action I can take against him I will.
And please, before anyone starts bleating about a post 9-11 world, this was a deactivated pineapple hand grenade. It might as well have been a black ball with a rope on top and the word "Bomb" printed on the side.

So now I have to go to work on less than two hours sleep, i don't have time to proofread this so excuse any mistakes but this is probably a less disjointed account than the one I gave to the radio and tv crews camped outside my house when I got home.

I won't be home until this evening but I'll happily answer any questions/accept abuse.

Watch out for me on the news and once again, apologies to my neighbours.