Doofus Of The Day #162

Today’s Doofus award is to the unnamed Iowa State Patrol trooper who called out the Des Moines bomb squad – for a toilet float!

The Des Moines police bomb squad determined Sunday that an object that looked like a bomb outside the Iowa Judicial Building was in fact a sump or toilet tank float ball.

The bomb squad was called out shortly before 4 a.m., on Sunday to have a look at the round, black object that was discovered by an Iowa State Patrol trooper.

“They called us and rightly so,” said Police Sgt. Russell Schafnitz. “I wasn’t out there but I understand it had a sinister look about it. A ball-shaped thing with something sticking out of it.”

It was on the sidewalk near Court Avenue in front of the Judicial Building. It was about 8 or 10 inches in size with broken mounting brackets on the side.

Sgt. Schafnitz said about a third of the calls to bomb squad officers concern items that look sinister but turn out to be harmless.

Sorry, Sergeant, but I can’t agree that they were ‘right’ to call you. I mean, a toilet float? Lying in the street? That’s a fearsome terror possibility right there, isn’t it? If you aren’t careful, it might go Flussssshh!

On the other hand, if anything fitting the description of ‘a ball-shaped thing with something sticking out of it’ is automatically regarded as having ‘a sinister look’, I suspect the good Sergeant may be in need of some anatomy lessons . . .

Peter