You mean there are TWO Vancouvers?

[pkt]

Latest news today:
The busiest Canada-US border crossing was closed this afternoon when a bomb was 'discovered' in one of the north-bound vehicles.

The bomb was a hand-granade owned by the 28-yo driver's husband who's in the US armed forces. The driver did not know that the hand granade was in the car's glove compartment.

It appears that the woman from Houston, TX was heading to Vancouver, WASHINGTON when she took the "wrong turn" and ended up at the US - Canada border heading for Vancouver BC.

Now for those of you not living in this side of the continent, Vancouver, WA is just north of the border with Oregon.
Vancouver, BC is another 30 miles north of the border, in a totoally different country. So the difference is about a 5-hour drive with the whole state of Washington in between.

Questions that popped into my mind when I heard this piece of news on the radio:
1. Why would a soldier keep a hand granade in the glove compartment of HIS own family car? There must be a rule against that. Perhaps someone who served or is serving in the US armed forces can illuminate us on this.
2. I guess it could happen to the best of us since on most road maps, Vancouver BC would be more prominent than Vacouver, WA. Easy mistake to make, no?

PK

[Inquartata]

I imagine there wil be an investigation of the husband...unless the grenade turns out to be one of those inert ones they sell in Army surplus stores...or the soldier is on the EOD squad.

[pkt]

In4,

Methinks it'll be the first case. I don't know the details yet, but it seems that the hand grenade must have set off one of the multitude of sensors, because knowing hte Immigration Cda, most of the officers don't get out of their booths unless of course the sensors go off...

What's the EOD squad?

Oh, almost forgot a snide remark, I wonder if the woman is a blonde????

My apologies to the blondes amongst us. Two of the closest women in my life are blondes.

PK

[pkt]

Saw the video clip on the news, through the windows of a police cruiser, the woman does not look like a blonde.

PK

[pkt]

Here's the view from the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3494819.stm

According to one of my fencing buddies in Seattle who's an ex-army brat, this woman's husband is in real deep doo-doo. these are some of the emails he sent:
"I would not be surprised if the soldier of that woman is court-martialed and severly punished. The list of crimes that he can and should be charged with is quite long: theft of government property, posession of stolen property, posession of an explosive device, interstate transportation of stolen property and explosives, etc. All felonies, all things the U.S. military takes a very dim view of, not to mention the Dept. of Homeland Security. Husband and wife are both in very deep doo-doo. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) it's not a crime to be stupid. I think it's funny that this dynamic duo are from the same state as our illustrious president. Maybe its something in the water in Texas."

"A G.I. stealing armament is really, really serious. He will be lucky not to be court-martialed and dismissed from the service with a Dishonourable Conduct-which includes a loss of your right to vote for life..."

"A Dishonorable Discharge is the equivelent of a felony conviction. And it's a Federal offense. So one is unable to vote in local, state and national elections. You might not be able to obtain a passport as well, but I'm not sure. That's why I was saying that the G.I. is really in deep doo-doo. There can be no construing what he did as an honest mistake. All that ordinace is signed for and accounted. If he some how walked out of the amory/off the range and just happened to have not accounted for the grenade, it is still a serious breach of protocol. Not to mention why didn't he return it. Now add to it the embrassment to his commanding officer, his unit and the government. I imagine the G.I. is "sweating bullets" right about now."

Maybe some of the correspondents on this forum who ahve been in the military would collaborate these points.

PK

[Inquartata]

EOD=Explosive Ordnance Disposal, ie "the bomb squad".

[Black Jeebus]

Question, how are can one be an ex-army brat. Did the army brat's parents reverse time such that they weren't raised on army bases by army parents? I'm not trying to be contradictory just the idea of an ex-army brat is odd to me.

[Soldier]

Forgive me if I'm a bit leery of an "ex-Army brat".

Also, pointing back to Inq's first speculations - it is quite possible it was not a live grenade. It is also quite possible that it was obtained elsewhere - things like grenades, fully automatic weapons, etc., are not quite so hard to come by as one might think. That he was in the Army may be only a coincidence.

As for the Texas comment. Consider, for a moment, the population of Texas, and hence the high possibilities of getting morons from there. I rather detest the use of every possible avenue to simply bash the President, no matter how unrelated the subject may be. Petty and immature, if you ask me.