Official News - page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: EXPLODING TROUSERS FOIL ROBBER

by Hazed

This story is a newsdroid's gift: how often do we get to use the phrase "exploding trousers" in a headline?

It concerns a bank robber who made off with a bundle of cash from a bank in Orlanda. He stuffed the money down his trousers so he could make a fast getaway. Unfortunately, before he could get very far, a dye-pack concealed in the loot exploded, and set fire to his trousers - not to mention covering his hands (and presumably his privates) with red dye. He was arrested and then taken to hospital to be treated for burns on his "lower torso" as the report we read euphemistically put it.

Ouch!

This reminds us of a serious scientific report we read some years back, concerning Farmer Buckley and his exploding trousers. In 1931 in New Zealand, farmers suddenly suffered an epidemic of exploding trousers. Some of the trousers detonated on the washing line or while being dried in front of the fire; in some cases, the farmers were actually wearing them when they started to smoulder.

The culprit turned out to be a newly-discovered pesticide called sodium chlorate which farmers had been using to destroy ragwort, a pernicious weed that was ruining their pastures. The problem was that when combined with organic material, such as the cotton and wool fibres found in their trousers, the mixture became highly volatile - with explosive results.

Ouch again!

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