Americana: Dynamite Mixup

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"A breakdown in communications" is what officials like to call such situations. Idiocy is perhaps more accurate.

St. Louis airport Police Officers John Clouse and Ed Philippe set out one day last week to train and test two of the dogs that the airport uses to help provide security against hijackers and terrorists. Two sticks of dynamite without detonators would be placed in a car and the dogs would be turned loose to find them. The police chose a passenger car at random in the airport's parking lot, hid the dynamite under the bumper, and after warning parking-lot personnel, took the dogs to another part of the airport to begin the search. While the dogs were searching, one of the parking attendants, who did not hear about the training run, returned the car to its owners—an unsuspecting elderly couple, who promptly drove off.

The dynamite is not dangerous, police insisted, but they alerted patrols on highways around St. Louis to search for the potentially explosive car. They made more than 200 phone calls to those who flew into the airport that night, but all in vain. Until the elderly couple discovered their plight while watching television, Canine Commander Lieut. John Reeg had only the traditional explanation, the one about communications.