Today my usual schedule was broken by an unforeseen, though not unexpected, event. I left the base at around 6PM, as I usually do. Work wasn't too important or interesting today, but it wasn't too boring either. So far, a day as any other. I took the bus outside the gates, and went for home. I don't live far - 45 minutes by bus. The road home was pretty calm, I could even spend it reading a book for a change, which I usually can't do due to bad lighting, excessive shaking, or noise. The bus was just about to enter the central bus station (a rather shabby affair, open-air and rarely renovated) it was stopped by a policeman. The roads leading to the area were blocked. After a brief argument with the policeman, we (the remaining three passengers) were asked to leave the bus then and there, and wait. We waited. One my two fellow passengers for the evening decided he couldn't wait, and took a back street as a road home. I wasn't interested in walking that far, so I stayed. I didn't see much, except two crowds at the access points to the bus station area - and police vans blocking all entrances. Soon afterwards a megaphone cut the evening silence - "Please listen! A controlled detonation of a suspected object (note: potential bomb in a bag or briefcase, left unattended in a place where people would later gather) will take place now. Please obey the orders of the policemen, and do not enter the area!" I waited. A short blast soon came, almost immediately followed by a second. The second blast surprised me, but as the second blast wasn't stronger than the second, I figured it was just part of the controlled detonation rather than a reaction caused by the first. I waited some more. Another detonation was announced, and took place - the same two-blast routine. Then I saw the police bot drive away through the central bus station area. Nice little fellow, basically a box on wheels with a robotic arm. Not fast, but certainly steady as it went. The crowds watched all the while. It was obvious that part of the crowd was just people wanting to go in and wait for their next bus, like me, but most were just passers-by who thought that watching the show was interesting. Seems that a crowd will gather for any event on the street - be it an arrest, a car accident, or a potential bomb. All the while being completely and utterly useless at the scene - more a nuisance than anything else, if the expressions on the faces of the policemen were any indication. And then... I went home.
Did you get any information by now what it was that they blasted up (an actual bomb or a forgotten briefcase)?
Ah the fun of bomb squads... We had a suspicious object at work, so the building was evacuated and we waited for the bomb squad. The problem was that it took them 5 hours to show up, I was stuck outside with nothing but a key to my office as I hadn't been in the building when they evacuated it. So i had no purse, no money and no car keys to get home. So I waited, borrowed some money to get some lunch and waited... 7 hours later the suspicious package was a bag of clothes... It would added that extra sense of surrealism if they had control detonated it... It seems Israeli bomb squads are a lot more efficient.
It was most likely some forgotten bags or briefcases, as there resulting rubble was cleared up pretty quickly and there weren't any larger secondary blast resulting from the police's explosive charge. Nothing on the news or anything like that. The sad truth is that we're so used to this sort of thing around here that it's not news anymore - it's simply part of the routine. Israeli bomb squads don't spend too much time going over what they believe can just be blown up. If they see that there's no risk in blowing it up, they prefer not to spend further time to assure themselves whether or not it's safe or small explosive charge hidden in a bag. They just blow the damn thing up and go home.
Where I used to live, bomb squads still have plenty to do with bombs from WWII. Whenever some piece of land is being digged up, for building a house or a street for example, they tend to find work. So close to the border, the bomb squads used to drop everything they'd left so they'd make it back to their base more easily. The only more recent thing was one of those "suspicious objects" - a giant stuffed bear someone had forgotten on a bus stup right in front of a military base... I don't remember if they blew it up...
Side note: You can tell a geek by the fact that during the middle of a serious situation regarding explosives, he will find time to get excited about the robot.
That's true, Ben. ;-) I also know that the robots come in a variety that carries a slow-firing shotgun. The police use those when there's a car that may have an explosive charge in it. The area is cleared, metal plates (with heavy-duty supports) are placed at three sides of the car, and the robot goes to the fourth and proceeds to slowly, yet very methodically and accurately, shoot through the car in every possible location. Swiss cheese in slow-motion, really. Also, true to form, I spent most of the time standing and reading a book. A fantasy novel, in fact. The light from the street posts wasn't very good, though too dim and yellow for proper reading.
