Posted on 12/09/2014 5:11:58 AM PST by Gamecock
CLOVER — Two teenagers were arrested in Clover on Monday after police say the pair confessed to detonating a homemade cannon overnight.
Brandon Campbell, 18, and Justin Ghorley, 19, set off the cannon on the lawn of First United Methodist Church on Elizabeth Avenue around 3:30 a.m. on Monday, prompting several neighbors to call the police, said Lt. Tanner Davis with the Clover Police Department.
When officers arrived, they found debris and damage to the lawn “that appeared to have come from an explosion,” Davis said.
The investigation continued through the morning, and statements from neighbors led officers to a house where police say Campbell and Ghorley confessed to making and firing a cannon.
The cannon was made from welding a steel pipe onto a steel plate. They filled it with gunpowder and drilled a hole for a fuse, Davis said.
“The last time they used it, the plate shattered and came apart,” he said.
The explosion caused minor damage to the church’s lawn. Shrapnel was thrown around, so it was fortunate that no one was hurt, Davis said.
“It was a really bad choice,” Davis said. “They just thought it was cool, but it was really dangerous.”
Both Campbell and Ghorley were charged with two counts each of manufacturing explosives.
As of Monday afternoon, they were both being held at the York County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing.
I agree, but looking at the mug shots they look “Hold my beer” bright. Maybe the cops arrested them so they wouldn’t need to take them tot he morgue later.
lol she was pixed! But it wasn’t me, I only wish I was that clever...........
Boy, blowing up things is how guys used to learn. Now I guess it is better to put them in a corner with a game machine.
Sounds about right!
A group of us teenagers made a tennis ball “gun”, we used lighter fluid to launch the ball...
Well...the lighter fluid soaked ball took off like a flaming comet and proceeded to ignite a grass fire each time it bounced...
Needless to say, there were a bunch of burned sneakers from stomping out the fires and no ability to avoid being ID’d as the culprits...
Sometimes, teenagers just do stupid stuff.
BRANDON AND JUSTIN: WHAT HAPPEN?
OFFICER: YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DOING.
I never, and I mean NEVER get tired of seeing that gif...LOL!
There is just too much awesome there.
Do I know you?!?
Brother from a different mother?
This was in the Canal Zone, late ‘70s, early ‘80s timeframe.
We used to make homemade cannons when I was a teen in a place a long, long time ago and far, far away, and in fact one blew up on us too. The one that blew up was a small-diameter cast iron sewage pipe with one end dug into the ground, angled like a mortar. We’d light an M-80 (one of the real ones you could get under the counter back in the day), drop it down the pipe and then drop in a walnut on top of that. We would shoot it from the top of a cliff at night in a wooded area. Worked pretty good for a while until it blew up, sending shrapnel flying all through the woods. Lord only knows where the walnuts landed when the thing worked.
Obviously, our choice of pipe was really stupid. We should have been using steel instead of cast iron! But hey, we were kids, not engineers.
There is no mosque in Clover nor hopefully will there ever be. Clover is Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist and a very Christian and religious town. It was once a thriving cotton mill town but I think all the mills have closed and/or have been torn down. Yet, the town has managed to get by without them. The railroad tracks through the middle of town are gone. The downtown retail section is doing well and looks pretty much like it did 60 years ago or more.
Drinking 6 cans of Fanta or Blue boy soda (Couldn't waste money on the good stuff, had to buy the lighter fluid) Swiping my fathers good electrical tape....
Obama voters?
Clover is a pretty little town.
On pretty days I like getting off I-77 when coming back from Charlotte. Some days I’ll come back on 321, some days 21.
That’s how I learned the joys of duct tape.
Duct tape, bailing wire, ether (don’t ask), and bailing wire kept my friend’s 68’ Mustang 289 running for 2 years, till we swapped the 289 for a 302.
“I was their age back in the 70s. Shooting off a homemade cannon in town would have been just plain fun.”
My three sons are about your age.
I read things like this and say,”Thank God those days are behind me”.
.
I had a 72 Gran Torino with a 302. You would think it was too small an engine for that car, but it did very well. I’ll bet it was a beast in a Mustang.
His house was on the first fairway of the local golf course just barely within range of the 1st tee. Whenever some errant golfer would bounce a golf ball off his picture window he would load up a reduced charge of power (no shot), aim it at the club house and touch it off. The entire building would shake and EVERYONE knew what had just happened. Sometimes the errant golfer would be browbeaten into buying the house a round of drinks when he returned.
"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
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