This is a really misleading article. I thought that some clever person found a way of making a bomb using the bulb from a flashlight or something along those lines. No, it's just an ordinary bomb that just happens to be in a flashlight. You could put the entire battery/wire/switch/blasting-cap combo in just about any object. If the mad bomber starts putting his bombs in old microwave ovens, the idiot journalists in Phoenix would write about 'microwave bombs' and the Keystone Kops would be warning people to not mess with abandoned microwave ovens. If the mad bomber starts putting his bombs in old pink stuffed bunnies, well, you get the idea...

/News Flash--Journalists aren't very bright...

The third bomb exploded on May 24 at a Salvation Army distribution center.... An employee ... suffered a small abrasion to his forehead.

The guy's freaking holing the bomb when it goes off and all he suffers is a small abrasion?

Man, you suck at making bombs, dude.

JesseL: Since when do cheap flashlights have serial numbers?

Maybe they're NFA flashlights :D

Sullyville: The clever thing is getting your victim to activate the bomb in a package so generic it's hard to trace.

An iPod? A fleshlight? Bucket o' KFC?

Gyrfalcon: KFC Buckets are already shiatbombs...I'm not sure if that's generically hard to trace or not...

I'd bet that if you wrapped Primacord around a KFC Bucket and got a good shock wave, you'd probably get a very greasy mushroom cloud out of it. Unfortunately, the fallout would clog the arteries of everybody downwind...

/had a gig in Tucson earlier this year
//the University of Arizona is actually pretty progressive
///the folks in Tucson joke about seceding from the conservative kooks in Phoenix and forming the state of South Arizona
////I'll bet the bomber is some sort of 'sovereign citizen' tax-evasion kook

I'm sure Sheriff Joe will get right on it once he's done investigating whether Hawaii is lying about where Obama was born.

studebaker hoch: [sp5.fotolog.com image 500x374]

You have no idea how awesome this pic is, do you? It is....perfection. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Also wanted for questioning.

/put that flashlight on you biatch, cause you just a HO-OOOO

TheDirtyNacho: xanadian: Hopefully, the police get some clues that will help shed some light on who the perpetrator is.

There's a pretty good chance of someone getting caught. Visit all the hardware stores, walmarts, goodwills etc that sell those kind of flashlights or components and get the receipts with flashlight purchases and their timestamps. Then get any video surveillance from those time periods. This is pretty standard when someone has to concoct something used in a crime, even when direct evidence (like fingerprints) are lacking.

It's possible that the person is using old flashlights or batteries they've had for awhile, but who keeps that many around just waiting to be turned into a bomb?

This is good routine police work, but unless the perps are morons, is unlikely to yield results. Random flashlight bombs? This is some piece (or pieces) of work, and I'm guessing they're fairly smart. Flashlights probably come from garage sales, or the equivalent.......paperless.

JesseL: TheDirtyNacho: TheDirtyNacho: xanadian: Hopefully, the police get some clues that will help shed some light on who the perpetrator is.

There's a pretty good chance of someone getting caught. Visit all the hardware stores, walmarts, goodwills etc that sell those kind of flashlights or components and get the receipts with flashlight purchases and their timestamps. Then get any video surveillance from those time periods. This is pretty standard when someone has to concoct something used in a crime, even when direct evidence (like fingerprints) are lacking.

It's possible that the person is using old flashlights or batteries they've had for awhile, but who keeps that many around just waiting to be turned into a bomb?

It also sounds like these bombs are small and not very explosive, so its likely serial numbers are intact. This would make tracing where they were sold originally fairly easy, assuming they are not 20 year old flashlights. That would narrow it down even more.

Since when do cheap flashlights have serial numbers? I rather doubt most retailers are keeping that kind of record of every sale too.

There's almost always some kind of traceable code or model number. If not that, then the batteries. These devices did not obliterate.

And yes, most retailers, especially your big boxers, keep records of all this. It works well for just-in-time inventory ordering that most use these days.

Even your smaller retailers have it all computerized. There was a murder here a few years ago where the killer dismembered the victim and tried to dispose of the body by dissolving it. The police went a local hardware store looking for anyone that had bought lime recently and lo, there was a young man who was acquainted with the victim that also bought a hacksaw, a bucket and other items... he paid cash but the security camera feed was readily available.

TheDirtyNacho: There's almost always some kind of traceable code or model number. If not that, then the batteries. These devices did not obliterate.

I've got a cheapass 6v flashlight right here and the only markings I see on it anywhere are Everready and "Made in Hong Kong". As for the batteries, they have a date code and that's it. If there were any other markings, they'd be simple to remove.

Essentially what you need here is for the bomber to make some incredibly stupid mistake just begging to be caught. That happens surprisingly often, but it's not something you can count on. Even when they do make mistakes, it's amazing how often police overlook them.

The real world isn't like CSI - major crimes go unsolved all the time.