A flashbang is a type of grenade that, rather than sending out shrapnel or a concussive wave when it explodes, makes a bright flash and loud noise. It’s meant to, with the flash and boom, disorient targets.
Well, one Louisiana man decided to use one to defend his truck; worried about thieves in New Orleans trying to steal his vehicle, he rigged a flashbang to explode if anyone tried stealing it. The grenades are meant to just stun and disorient, not kill, so the result was rather more funny than gruesome. Watch what happened here:
WATCH: A fed-up resident placed a non-lethal "flash-bang" in their truck recently and when someone broke in the detonation went off. The NOPD warns that this action is illegal and can legally be considered a bomb:https://t.co/bO9O3zTF5S pic.twitter.com/JuYdIeZl6f
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) April 5, 2022
As you can see, the thief, upon triggering the trap, took off faster than Road Runner, darting away from the flashbang-dropping truck.
So, it worked! The truck wasn’t stolen by some criminal element in New Orleans, despite the criminal obviously intending on stealing it. He had jogged up to the truck, jumped up on the side, and busted in the window, after all. It’s not like he was just the valet trying to pull the truck around to the front of a restaurant.
But, of course, the police got mad at the otherwise law-abiding citizen who was just trying to defend what was his. Fox reports that “NOPD says something rigged up to detonate can be considered a bomb and could be illegal.”
Maybe if they did their jobs he wouldn’t have been forced to defend his property with something that was illegal…
The man who did the flashbang trap rigging was less than contrite, however. He’s seen the thief smash his window multiple times recently and finally got so fed up by it and the impotence of the incompetent police that booby-trapping his car was the only recourse he had. In his words:
“To see him like gleefully walk up and just smash my eighth window in the past couple months and jump in and then you know to see the detonation go off and his reaction.
“I don’t want this guy to die for what he did, but I don’t want him to just be able to smash and grab and run away.
“He probably didn’t get hurt that bad, but it wasn’t pleasant and it might deter him and his friends and tell other people not to do this too because, without something like this, there is no consequence because they’re not going to get arrested.”
The man, who said his truck is often targeted because it sometimes has guns and other valuables in it, added that:
“Leadership has failed and more ways than one when it comes to this situation, just crime in the area, like, I reported to the police almost every time and I don’t blame the police for this, they’re understaffed and like there’s too much crime. I really blame the fact that like these, these people get caught, and then they basically get bailed out. Whoever did this, definitely, had a bad night. He might never do it again because every time he goes in there, this could happen to him.”
The police should just pat him on the back for coming up with a non-lethal solution to the car-thief problem. Many people wouldn’t have been so humane.
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
Featured image credit: screengrab from embedded video
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