Beer runners’ flour trail a recipe for trouble

[mwb970]

Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge. The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.

New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony. The siblings set off the scare while organizing a run for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide group that bills itself as a “drinking club with a running problem.”

“Hares” are given the task of marking a trail to direct runners, throwing in some dead ends and forks as challenges. On Thursday, the Salchows decided to route runners through the massive IKEA parking lot.

Police fielded a call just before 5 p.m. that someone was sprinkling powder on the ground. The store was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the night. The incident prompted a massive response from police in New Haven and surrounding towns.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20441775/

This is another grotesque example of terrified Americans overreacting and seeing terrorist threats under every bed. It was flour, people. When I was a kid, if you saw white powder in a parking lot, you said "I wonder why someone is dumping a bunch of flour here." Now we call the police and mobilize the National Guard. We've literally gone crazy with fright, thanks to Bush and his constant fearmongering.

Remember the anthrax scare? For about two weeks, there were thousands of emergency runs across the country involving powdered sugar from doughnuts, aspirin stepped on on the floor, etc. Of all the thousands of calls, not one involved any actual anthrax. Well, DUH!

They used to tell us about how America was formed by brave settlers who climbed every mountain, forded every stream, fought the Indians, etc., etc. Now we act like a bunch of little girls at a Sunday School picnic running screaming from the thunder. What happened to us? Is this still the "home of the brave"?

[Bolo Boffin]

1. The sprinkled flour FORCED hundreds to evacuate...

Oh, brother.

This was in broad daylight (just before 5 pm).

[Systematic Chaos]

2. K&R number 1 from me....

I can't even think of anything to say about this story and I'm rarely at a loss for words.

Fucking stupid, and I don't mean Mr. Salchow and his sister. I wish both of them the best.

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. Felony charge?

As if they were sprinkling cocaine in the parking lot? Were they supposed to know they were breaking the law? And which one, for that matter? How outrageous.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. "Things have changed since 9/11"

That's their official motto and they're sticking with it.

[Mythsaje]

4. What freeper glanced down and said

"Hey, that looks like Anthrax!"

You know it had to be that kind of a dimwit. Like ANYONE has enough anthrax laying around to use it to mark a trail.

:banghead:

[mcscajun]

5. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner.

:applause:

[Drifter]

7. I used to Hash ...

here in the Rochester Area. I stopped shortly before 9/11. I remember reading about a similar incident in the DC area, soon after.

Cheers
Drifter

[onethatcares]

8. it's over, they won, no longer do we have to worry about

fighting them over here, the numb nutz with dhs have gotten everyone zonkers. Why didn't someone just take a big old finger tip of the stuff and eat it to show there was no problem?