Just reading the Loughborough University bomb threat procedure (yes, really) and in their guide to suspicious packages they say ...


5. The writing is in an unfamiliar foreign style. - Who's the intern at Pendraken just now?
7. A "jiffy" bag, or similar padded envelope, has been used.   Yes
8. The item seems unusually heavy for its size. (Most letters weigh up to about 28g or 1 ounce, whereas most effective letter bombs weigh 50-100g and are 5mm or more thick). Yes
10. The item is marked "personal" or "confidential".  I have all my packages from Pendraken marked that way
11. The item is oddly shaped or lopsided.  Buildings or paints?
12. The envelope flap is stuck down completely ( a harmless letter usually has an un-gummed gap of 3-5 at the corners). Thorough lickers in Pendraken
15. There is a smell – particularly of almonds or marzipan. Only if Dave has been near it. If it's Leon, then it's sulphur.
16. The item feels and looks like a book. Worse I'd say?

So, Gentlemen, in order to protect you lives., I'm offering to have all your packets from Pendraken sent to me, and I shall ensure they're not dangerous, before sending what remains to you.

I know. I know, but hold the adoration. I'm just thinking of my Forum comrades. 

Theft act 1968 - Dishonestly appropriate with intent to permanently deprive.

Looks very like   this

Quote from: fsn on 19 February 2015, 01:42:18 PM
So, Gentlemen, in order to protect you lives., I'm offering to have all your packets from Pendraken sent to me, and I shall ensure they're not dangerous, before sending what remains to you.

Cheshire Police Runcorn will serve a warrant shortly.

IanS

We've just got big road signs (in red! with white lettering) stating that "This is a security vigilance area. Report all suspicious activity to the police" and it's also got the picture I use for my forum avatar on it, too.

Seeing the RLC Bomb Squad's white van whizzing past is near enough an everyday occurrence here (not just for suspected mortar attacks, which I believe is the modern parlance).

Maybe I live in a high catchment area for Pendraken customers 

Still, I miss seeing the armed Land Rover patrols we were treated to, once over. 

Over here it used to be

Everyone out a bomb threat has been phoned through!

Which meant in reality we still had 40 minutes to finish our pints and get some chips before wandering off

My father was a safety officer and I remember him being horrified on visiting a new building to find that the standard instructions to staff in the event of a bomb threat was that they were to evacuate a building deliberately designed to be bomb resistant and to minimise casualties in the event of an explosion and to stand out in the car park where the glass shards generate by any sizeable explosion would scythe through the crowds. Instructions and window glass were swiftly replaced!

The standard instructions to all workers at the printing-ink factory in Aukland were - if the siren goes, get out asap, the solvents are highly flammable. On the one occasion the alarm sounded I did remember to hit the emergency stop button on the three-roll mill before legging it. The guy next to me didn't, and purple printing ink takes a whole lot of clearing up....

I remember, when I worked in the University Library, that the Rare Book Room had a Halon fire system. You had something like 60 seconds to get out before you were either doing an Indiana Jones roll under the descending fire-proof shutter or suffocating! Doubtless long since replaced on "Elven Safety" grounds

Of course this thread will have been 'flagged up' now by GCHQ, FBI, CIA, MI6, MI5, and just about EVERY intelligence agency in the world!

I mean all we have to do is start talking about guns, tanks, katyushas, bomb dogs, etc., and it will drive their systems frantic.   

Mind you it could be all a devious ploy by Pendraken to increase the visitor count and hopefully increase the customer base.   

I am sat at work, waiting to pick up daughter from swimming... my mouse mate ...gives me instructions ..
Action to be taken in receipt of a bomb threat... I laughed when I got it, thinking it was a p*** take...evidently not....
I need to record:
Date and time
Length of call
Exact text of the threat - Code word
If the caller does not hang up, try to keep them talking.... and so it goes on.....

My father also tells the tale of a bomb threat received by one of the telephonists where he worked at the height of the IRA campaign on the UK mainland.

The telephonist had made a note of the message but insisted she didn't have any further useful information.

"Any distinctive noises in the background? Traffic, trains, aircraft, machinery?"
"No"
"Anything distinctive about what he said?"
"No"
"Anything distinctive about the way he said anything? An odd pronunciation or anything like that?"
"No"
"Any trace of an accent?"
"No"
"What, no accent at all?"
"No"
"No accent? What did he sound like then?"
"He sounded just like me"

.... she was from Armagh!

School trip to France years ago.
Boys all bought BB guns from the market.
Promptly confiscated...
One of the teachers laid them all out on her bed, then was about to send Husband a photo on her phone.
We had to dissuade her, she was Irish Catholic from Newry, he was an RUC officer!

"Oh, I never thot of thaat!"

Had a student try to take smoke bombs he'd bought at a French market into Euro Disney...how we laughed...

NOT 

The exchange I worked in 'x' years ago......

The 'bomb' alarm went off.....
"Is that the drill, or the proper one ?"
"I dunno...Let's see what everyone else does....It's absolutely p***ing down outside."

So around six of us stayed inside, and watched through a window to see everyone else getting totally drenched.
(It WAS a drill.....We laughed...and weren't declared 'dead'.)

Cheers - Phil.

Quote from: Techno on 19 February 2015, 06:27:41 PM


(It WAS a drill.....We laughed...and weren't declared 'dead'.)

Cheers - Phil.

Debatable 

 

What was mildly disturbing, Gareth, was that no-one had done a head count, to see whether everyone had actually left the exchange !

One day, I'll tell about the time (when I worked for the Post Office) when I was sure someone on the other side of the counter had pushed an explosive device, in a small package, to me.
That's the only time in my life when I've felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up ! (Raspy, raspy, raspy, against my collar.)
Terrified ?.....You bet ! (Not joking !)

Cheers - Phil