CNN/AP: Starbucks 'bomb' was only a flashlight

[DeepModem Mom]

Starbucks 'bomb' was only a flashlight
Friday, January 13, 2006


SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- What authorities thought was a bomb in a Starbucks coffee shop turned out to be a flashlight casing, police said Thursday.

A forensic analysis "revealed the absence of any explosive material," a police statement said.

Police initially said the device found in the store's bathroom Monday was powerful enough to seriously injure or kill someone if it had exploded. Police evacuated about 100 people from the Starbucks and apartments above it.

A man arrested on suspicion of planting an explosive device, Ronald Schouten, was still being held Thursday on an unrelated burglary charge. But police said his explanation on how the flashlight ended up in the coffee shop was credible.

Schouten, 44, told KPIX-TV that he found the flashlight in the street and accidentally dropped it in the bathroom....


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/13/starbucks.no.bomb.ap/index.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. What is the color code for this alert?

A nice, restful mauve, perhaps? Maybe aubergine and green?

[tanyev]

2. A nice creamy mocha latte color.

:)

[Demeter]

32. Beet Red--As in Blushing in Shame

Honestly, there's more excitement in a cold medicine commercial.

[Karmakaze]

3. What the hell? How could they accidentally say

that this flashlight contained a quarter stick of dynamite, if in fact it did not? It sounds to me like the burglary charge is just so the cops dont have to admit what a screw-up they pulled. I bet in a month or two the burglary charge will be dropped.

[struggle4progress]

30. It was intended to keep something else off the front page. eom

[ucmike]

4. maybe starbuck's attorneys talked to the police.

an told them it wasn't a bomb.

[chopper]

5. i feel so old

""I love that Starbucks," Schouten said in an interview with the station. "The people are saints. They know I'm homeless. They let me drink coffee for 50 cents. I love those people.""

when a homeless dude is happy that he can get coffee for 'only' 50 cents a cup, it makes me feel really, really old.

[ret5hd]

6. i agree...if they knew him and his position (homeless)...

let him clean the sitting area or something for a free cup. Tell 'im to "take a load off, have a cup on me".

but that's just me. i'm a sucker, but i know it and i don't mind.

[henslee]

21. This aint the old days. They can't do that. For a lot of reasons.

Insurance. Labor laws.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. and so it was. The world ended when a battery of flashlights invaded

starbucks. Soon, cell phones, PDAs and iPods were marching on humanity, strangling, chocking and shocking mere hominids to death.
At first the US military attempted tactical strikes. But, since all of their weapons and most of their personnel were stuck in Iraq, the strikes failed. Quickly, the flashlights joined up of ATMs and self-serve gas stations, forcing the American way of life to a screeching halt. unable to remember anything without their PDAs, incapable of communicating without their cells and not knowing how to light candles in place of the revolting flashlights, America as we knew it died.

The flashlights quickly took control of the White House, displaying more rational thought than all WH staffers combined. They herded the entire administration into holding cells, filled with canned food, bottles of water and a mechanical can opener. But, in an unfortunate quirk of fate, not one Bush administration member knew what the can opener was supposed to do, so the entire neocon cult soon died of starvation.

[tanyev]

9. LOL!

And the survivors all lived happily ever after.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Wow! And so early in the a.m.! nt

[confuddled]

19. Enemy combatant?

Thank you for your perfect reflection of the psychosis driving this story. So, now the perp is being held in custody for consorting with this enemy combatant/potential suicide bomber?
I'm saving your post in an effort to retain what little sanity I have remaining.

[darkism]

37. I, for one, welcome our new flashlight overlords.

[Ready4Change]

8. Self-Edit: Flashlight with corroded batteries.

(Edit: I read the full article over, and found that the flashlight had corroded batteries. It wasn't just an empty tube. Corrections made below.)

Why did it take this long for this to be reported? I'm not an expert, but I'd guess the bomb squad knew this within a few hours of showing up on the scene. ANd it appears the "suspected bomber" has been arrested and held on a separate burgulary charge, rather on this.

But the question remains. Why was this not reported sooner? Did the police not release the info? Did the press not report the info? What gives?

[Warren Stupidity]

28. Yeah 'cause a stick of dynamite is easily mistaken

for a corroded battery. That explains it.

[Earth_First]

10. So the "IED" (as originally reported) was a flashlight?

:eyes:

[rocktivity]

11. Rather than believe they're THAT stupid

I'm going to assume the police deliberately planted that info in the press in hopes of flushing out someone else.

I saw a story on Court TV about a pair of armored car robbers whose phones were tapped. They were yukking it up about local news reports that just happened to filled with incorrect details about the robbery--"Did you see where they said our car was blue? Those dumb cops can't tell the difference between a blue car and a red one!"

:headbang:
rocknation

[Warren Stupidity]

13. Ok, but doesn't seem to fit this case.

There was no crime at all. Some idiot left his backpack in the bathroom. End of story.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. oh, there's a crime alright. Several, in fact.

a) the way the authorities overreacted to a FLASHLIGHT, for cripe's sake.
b) the way we have been turned into sheeple, not citizens of a democracy.
c) the way the MSM has handled this stupid affair.
d) the mistreatment of a homeless man who did nothing wrong, except be homeless.


There's more, and it is all criminal.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Well yes there are those crimes.

I was referring to the poster's speculation that the police were trying to flush somebody out.

[Briar]

18. Is that the start of the story

which is really about panic, hysteria, paranoia and the fueling of fear in the population? How many people who read about bombs planted in Starbucks will read about it having been a foolish false alarm?

[rocktivity]

24. We know there was no crime NOW

But as another poster has already suggested, THEY must have known it within three hours, never mind three days. Yet, they put out the story that it was a bomb and let it lie there. Why?

:shrug:
rocknation

[Warren Stupidity]

25. Well that is a good question.

However the explanation given by the OP, that perhaps the police were trying to trick the perpetrators into revealing themselves, lacks a crime for which perpetrators would exist.

So I am still in the 'wtf' phase of this incident. If somebody has a good theory about why the police took three days to reveal that a 'bomb' was actually a small flashlight, I'm all ears.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Huh?

Three days later they 'discover' that it was a flashlight?

Does the phrase 'this is total bullshit' ring a bell?

[MrPrax]

17. It's Frisco...

The cops there want OReilly to know that they aren't soft on 'terrorism', SF is part of America and damn it, AQ (esp. the dreaded 'Homeless' cell!! OMG) better stay away if they know what's good for them.

A Big Thank You to SF's Finest for their Diligence and professionalism! Without you, we're nothing...

(sarcasm)

[zann725]

20. Doesn't sound like Starbucks in L.A. Here I've seen them THROW homeless

out...even AFTER they've bought Starbuck's coffee. I even saw one "shoo" a homeless person away who had bought coffee (on a cold day), and was stopping briefly to drink the coffee OUTSIDE at one of the Starbuck tables OUTSIDE the store. I've also seen NUMEROUS Starbuck stores REGULARLY lock their bathrooms to keep homeless out. And make even regular, "upscale" customers beg for the bathroom key. I've seen "Barista's" lie to customers and say the bathroom was occupied, when it was not. And make families even wait for long periods of time for a bathroom which was empty, and a bathroom key which was knowingly present behind the Barista cash register. I've also seen Starbucks who "air condition" their facilities at mid-60 degrees as early as 6:00 a.m., clearly to "move quickly" those who come in to get cofee early and warm up. While true, some may be homeless, many are still regularl customers. I no longer "patronize" ANY Starbucks here...due to my personal "survey" of at least SEVEN local Starbucks, and the locking of their bathrooms, rudeness of their Baristas (except when they smile and say your name BEFORE you give them the money). I've written to the CEO, and called Customer Service numerous times, and the best they do is offer me a FIVE DOLLAR gift card. That hardly compensates for their overall rudeness.

That THIS particular SanFran customer gets "free" cofee from Starbucks there is "miraculous" indeed. At the very least, it's good P.R. for the "'Bucks."

[1932]

38. I saw a Starbucks employee give a homeless man money out of the tip jar

so that he could buy a coffee and the guy sat down down the table from me the entire time I was there.

Witnessing that act of kindness ensured my return and my generous tips for months afterwards.

[bee]

22. meanwhile, Osama is somewhere laughing his ass off (at us). n/t

[Auntie Bush]

23. I wish I could remember what was going on in the news that warranted

an interruption or diversion.? Must have been something bad about bush*. Regular color coded alerts don't work anymore.

[BiggJawn]

26. Flashlight? "Bomb"?

OK, MAYBE a "Personal Vibrator", but a bomb?

Well, If I leave to go home tonight and the fuzz are taking my truck apart with a robot, I'll know why...

Damn deadly looking, those Maglights....

[MidwestTransplant]

27. The flashlight casing could have wiped out a few city blocks too

IF it had a small nuke in it. On it's own though, it doesn't present much of a threat other than through bludgeoning.

[Zodiak]

29. I live in bizarro world

Is there ANY story that has come out recently that has been right the first time? I just read a thread about a downed helicopter where the story changed a few times. The recent story about the miners, the treating of the Abramoff scandal, the crocodile tears of Mrs. Scalito....everything.

The media totally and utterly sucks across the board. The police are apparently allowed to lie about crimes to cover their ass and the reporters apparently are only stenographers for liars who are free to make the story be "perceived" in any way they see fit.

I just want to throw a television through a window!!!!

A big scare over a gaddamned flashlight....what a surprise.

[file83]

39. These are stupid times we are living through. Really stupid.

[NYC]

31. Who wanted fear in San Francisco?

Someone must have.

[struggle4progress]

33. "San Francisco authorities struggled to explain Thursday how ..

.. they concluded that an object left in a Starbucks bathroom was a bomb, when tests revealed it was nothing more than a flashlight with corroded batteries ...

Gittens would not specify what about the device was so convincing, other than to say that all the people who saw it described it as a "tube-shaped cylinder with a fuse'' ...

He would not confirm that the device was simply a flashlight. But authorities speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that was the case ...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/13/BAGC9GMUSD1.DTL

[Eric J in MN]

34. I discussed Michelle Malkin's dubious reaction to this story:

http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/2006/01/13/michelle-malkin-jumps-to-conclusions-embarasses-herself/

[Charlie Brown]

41. LOL: From her blog:

"Whoever it was that left the IED in Starbucks ought to face serious consequences for endangering people's lives. But it's the Bay Area. So they won't."

Yup, San Francisco is way too lenient on those flash-light carrying menaces. If this had been anywhere else, look out.

[threadkillaz]

35. Moral of the Story.

"When you need news, you make it up"

[olddad56]

36. Wow, if that thing goes off, it could have really lit up Starbucks.

[HuffleClaw]

40. oh my, that is pretty pathetic.

and it took them a WEEK to let people know? and of COURSE the guy in question just happened to be 'wanted' on an 'unrelated matter'. suuuuuuuure. i think the real question here is WHY and how did this happen in the first place.