Emergency Broadcast System II

In my inbox this morning, courtesy of the Redwood City Police Department.

Recently there have been several reports of so-called “acid bombs” in unincorporated Redwood City and in the City of Belmont. These are normally large plastic soda bottles containing caustic chemicals which are designed to create a chemical reaction and explode. These devices can be extremely dangerous, and they may detonate unexpectedly.

The Redwood City Police Department is advising the community to be aware of any such suspicious bottles, or other suspicious packages. Anyone who sees a suspicious object like this is strongly urged NOT to handle it. The proper action is to clear the immediate area and contact the Redwood City Police Department by dialing 911. Do not touch the bottle or any other suspicious packages.

Scary. I did read about this in the paper, so it's real (and a lot more exciting than the usual Atherton police blotter entries!). It's interesting that they notified us by EMail, especially considering that to my knowledge I never signed up for any notifications or provided the Redwood City Police with an EMail address. FWIW, I thought I'd pretty up this posting by including a picture of an acid bomb at the top, but when I googled it, I could see so much disturbing online information on the topic that I decided to use one of the bomb squad instead.