strange things sunday and monday in Stockbridge

Shoplifting suspects create explosion at Wal-Mart as diversion
(link) - Associated Press

STOCKBRIDGE, Georgia: Four men evading arrest for shoplifting at a neighborhood Wal-Mart triggered a small blast in the store using swimming pool chemicals in an incident that left four others hospitalized, authorities said.

Authorities said one of the men was seen by a store employee placing a toy inside his pants. As the employee went for help, the men headed to the section where the pool chemicals were stocked and mixed achlorine-based chemical with another item, said Lt. Jason Bolton of theHenry County Police. The chemical reaction created a small explosion and filled the store with white smoke.

"They made their escape in the chaos that ensued," Bolton told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a Monday story. "It's just hard to believe they did something like this to shoplift something as insignificant as a toy."

Four people, including an employee, hospitalized for respiratory problems following the incident Sunday night. Three others were treated by emergency workers outside the store.

Bolton said the men turned a shoplifting misdemeanor into more serious charges, including "one of terroristic acts."



I agree with Lt. Bolton- It is a bit hard to believe that this was all over a toy.

Strange Smells in an Empty Office

In other weird news, a strange noxious odor was detected at my work today, and in the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic that occupies the space at the end of our shopping center. I didn't smell it at all, but outside of my office I was told that the air smelled like sewage, or as though someone did a very bad deed in the bathroom (although the bathroom itself did not smell).

Chasity walked throughout the office with air freshener from the bathroom, spraying it in the air to attempt to mask the smell. Joe, my boss, returned from lunch and said, "the fire department is here," rather matter of factly. Not thinking much of it, I continued interviewing the client I had on the phone. Perhaps ten minutes later, I was startled when a firefighter outfitted in full gear walked into the hallway outside my office, fully masked and equipped with an oxygen tank. I continued to interview the client on the phone and made no mention of my unexpected visitor while this masked firefighter, whose dark colored uniform looked more like military fatigues to my overactive imagination, peered around my office silently from the doorway emitting only darth vader like breathing sounds before he wandered off in search of the source of the olfactory assault.

I later found out from the shopping center's owner that the fire department had tested the air for an array of substances including gases indicative of sewage, and that all tests were reportedly negative. All gas and sewer hardware in the building was reportedly in working order and with no indications of prior malfunction, and the source as well as the nature of the odor has yet to be identified.