Silly Little Country

Ominous Police Report

This one caught my attention too:

Break & Enter (Business) - 31 Division

Designer Fragrance Depot, 2625 Weston Road, reports that on July 26, 2005 at approximately 2330 hours, entry was gained into the premises by forcing a door. Removed was a quantity of perfume and cologne.

8468/87728/04:09

I recall reports in the British media after the London bombings that their homebrew bombs used perfume as an ingredient. This is addressed somewhat in this article from the Guardian:

It is very unlikely. "The common base for perfumes is ethanol and not many known explosives are based on this chemical," says Hans Michels, an explosives expert at Imperial College.

One of the London bombers, 19-year-old Jermaine Lindsay, spent some £900 on dozens of bottles of designer perfumes just days before he blew himself up on an underground train near King's Cross. Reports earlier this week claimed that the perfumes were meant to make the home-made explosives worse because the ethanol in perfumes would, like napalm, catch fire and cause more burn injuries.

But if, as the police suspect, the explosive used by the bombers is shown to be acetone peroxide, adding some alcohol from perfume bottles would have little extra effect.

Still, I wonder why anyone wanted so much perfume.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 3:07 PM