Indiana Student faces 8 years in prison for placing blowup doll in restroom

[rambone]

A graduating high school senior placed a plastic blowup doll in the ladies' room as a prank. The natural response in Police State America is to treat harmless pranks like acts of terrorism. Now he faces 8 years in prison.

Blow-Up Doll Prank Lands Student In Jail

 

[SEIndSAM]

Wow, when I graduated from High School 30 years ago, Senior pranks were commonplace.

For months before the planned day, myself and all my buddies collected all of the old broken down toilets we could find. In the end we had 5 or 6 pickup trucks full. We arranged them on the front yard of the school, each with a sign (Principal Name) "Val's Throne".

That would probably get us 5 years now.

 

[Benny]

Hopefully they are just trying to scare this idiot and don't actually go forward with this.

8 years? GTFO.

 

[eldirector]

A little excessive. Just because someone THOUGHT it might be a bomb, doesn't mean he should be charged as if it WAS a bomb, or even a bomb threat. Of course, that little news piece was a tad light on, well, everything.

Fail of a senior prank, though. It should have at LEAST gotten a cheerleader's uniform and a seat in the teacher's lounge.

 

[GLOCKBOY]

Our senior prank was to hide a large bell that was from the original HS. We returned it the night before we had grad ceremony. The next year did the same...cool tradition right? No, the year after some moron blew it up. A 100 year old bell. ATF was NOT amused. Somebody's gotta ruin the fun.

 

[RichardR]

It's hard for me to feel sympathetic towards "pranksters" today, as last night we had "pranksters" running amok in the neighborhood, egging a multitude of vehicles & houses in the area.

So I am looking at it from this standpoint ..

Was it a harmless prank? or was it an incident involving an suspicious person wearing a hood & latex gloves to avoid being identified, seen entering a woman's lavatory at a high school with a box, then seen exiting that lavatory without the box.

The school is evacuated, the bomb squad is called, thousands of parents are panicked an undisclosed amount of financial resources are spent, to me it seems like a great deal of pandemonium was caused all so this "man/kid" could get himself a couple of jollies.

 

[bobzilla]

You know Rambone... if you're that unhappy with this country you are more than welcome to leave. I have YET to find a positive post by you. You must be a very troubled, deeply saddened person to have this much hatred. I feel for you.

 

[E5RANGER375]

You know Rambone... if you're that unhappy with this country you are more than welcome to leave. I have YET to find a positive post by you. You must be a very troubled, deeply saddened person to have this much hatred. I feel for you.

you would have hated the founding fathers then and all the things they wrote and often inflated. you should tell all the people who dont get angered by stuff like this to leave, not the people who report injustice and treason.

 

[bobzilla]

there's a difference between reporting news and only reporting bad things. When all you report are the "terrible attrocities" and never anything good, people tend to tune you out and you lose any impact you may have had.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

8 years is a Class C Felony so that means the damage was north of $2,500 if it's a school.

What was damaged? The article does not mention. Did he damage the plumbing somehow by putting the doll in a toilet?

I do not understand where the police are getting the offense. Someone help me here.

 

[RichardR]

8 years is a Class C Felony so that means the damage was north of $2,500 if it's a school.

What was damaged? The article does not mention. Did he damage the plumbing somehow by putting the doll in a toilet?

I do not understand where the police are getting the offense. Someone help me here.

The cost involved with evacuating the school? &/or deploying the bomb squad?

 

[gunowner930]

It's hard for me to feel sympathetic towards "pranksters" today, as last night we had "pranksters" running amok in the neighborhood, egging a multitude of vehicles & houses in the area.

Paintball guns are effective when dealing with punks vandalizing property. You can pick up cheap pump paintball guns for under $50. There is a difference between damaging somebody's property and bringing a blowup doll to school.

Personally, I think its kinda funny. He should have aired it up and bent it over outside of the Principal's Office. The school overreacted and wasted resources? That's not the kid's fault, blame should be pointed at the school for calling the police on a blowup doll.

 

[ElsiePeaRN]

With all due respect to the rambone haters (I'm not sure exactly how much that is, so maybe someone can let me know?) if you find his posts objectionable, do not click on his threads. It's easy-- the threads say who started them. Tune him out if you wish, but what's the point in criticizing him? Some of us actually LIKE his threads--even if we disagree with his thoughts on them. Imagine that!

I have no idea where he finds his news, but his threads are almost always new news to me and I find them interesting. They force me to think about things that I may not have otherwise even known about. I have never once seen him respond in kind to the personal insults he receives from some of his fellow INGOers, and I can't say that I would show the kind of restraint he does.

So what if he doesn't post puppy stories? If you want puppy stories, start your own threads. I'll tune those out.

bobzilla -- there is nothing that gets under my skin more than "If you don't like it here in America you can just leave." A true patriot attempts to call attention to what needs improvement in his country and tries to make a difference. You're entitled to your opinions, but just for the record, I find yours as stated here far more objectionable than rambone's posts.

/rant

 

[eldirector]

So..... if there are HUGE errors in judgement by the school staff, police, and bomb squad, then it should be a felony?

ANYTHING COULD be a bomb. Maybe they should evacuate every time they see a cardboard box or a guy in a hoodie, just in case.

Heck, there are random shipping boxes outside of our office every day. No evacuations yet.....

 

[mrjarrell]

You know Rambone... if you're that unhappy with this country you are more than welcome to leave. I have YET to find a positive post by you. You must be a very troubled, deeply saddened person to have this much hatred. I feel for you.

You should go and hang out with IndyBeerman. Maybe the two of you could compare butthurt scars over a beer.

 

[RichardR]

Paintball guns are effective when dealing with punks vandalizing property. You can pick up cheap pump paintball guns for under $50. There is a difference between damaging somebody's property and bringing a blowup doll to school.

Personally, I think its kinda funny. He should have aired it up and bent it over outside of the Principal's Office. The school overreacted and wasted resources? That's not the kid's fault, blame should be pointed at the school for calling the police on a blowup doll.

What is the difference between "damaged property" and the "expenditure of public funds"? when boiled down to the basics, in both cases the pranksters cost other people their time & their money.

With regards to this particular case though, the school followed proper procedure & the police followed proper procedure, the only one who didn't follow proper procedure was the defendant.

If the statute says if the damage caused was in excess of a certain amount than it is a class C felony, & if he is found guilty of causing damage in excess of that amount, then I don't see what the problem is.

 

[gunowner930]

What is the difference between "damaged property" and the "expenditure of public funds"? when boiled down to the basics, in both cases the pranksters cost other people their time & their money.QUOTE]

Because vandals deliberately vandalized property. They have intent to destroy property. This kid had no intention or no idea that a bomb squad would be called over a blowup doll. Vandals have intent, this kid doesn't.

 

[sadclownwp]

I think stupid should hurt, just give him 30 lashings, or 5 rounds with an MMA heavyweight and let him go.

 

[RichardR]

So..... if there are HUGE errors in judgement by the school staff, police, and bomb squad, then it should be a felony?

ANYTHING COULD be a bomb. Maybe they should evacuate every time they see a cardboard box or a guy in a hoodie, just in case.

Heck, there are random shipping boxes outside of our office every day. No evacuations yet.....

You are making your determination based on what? prior knowledge that the box contained a blowup doll?

To anyone else, witnessing the act, ie: someone attempting to conceal their identity using a hood & latex gloves, sneaks into a public school, plants a box in a restroom & quickly makes an escape.

Yea I am guessing the first thing that pops into their mind isn't going to be "Ah that must be Bubbles the blowup doll in that box".

 

[NovemberKilo]

Oddly enough, my inflatable girlfriend (Sharon) was stolen from my garden shed last...

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