Question of the week!

[northernwalker]

You and your spouse are at home and have just collected the mail from your box. In it is a package addressed to your sixteen-year-old, who is out at band practice. It has hazmat stickers on it. You can think of no reason why your child should be receiving this, so you decide to open it and risk the ten years in prison for tampering with the mail. Inside is 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate which was purchased on Ebay. Warning bells go off in your head, and a quick google search tells you it's used in improvised explosive devices. Your child doesn't have any legitimate need for this. Do you:

A) Call the cops immediately?
B) Talk it over with your spouse?
C) Call the hospital and take the kid in to see a shrink?
D) Got to school, collect child and talk?
E) Make a panicked post to an LJ parenting community?

The broader question could be, at what point would you call the police and turn in a family member.

Comments

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

I have perhaps a bit of a skewed perspective on this, because my SO is a rocket scientist (yes, really), so he gets packages of weird chemicals in the mail ALL THE TIME.

So I probably wouldn't flip out, but rather put the box in a safe place where the kid can't find it, and wait until Junior got home from school, and ask him about it. If he could come up with a not-sketchy explanation for it, I wouldn't call the police, though the kid would probably not be getting the box back either. If there were other corroborating signs, like severely antisocial behavior, violent tendencies, writings or drawings depicting violent acts, I would call a psychiatrist. Since the kid would not have technically done anything wrong, I would be reticent to call the police unless on the advice of the psychiatrist. I would absolutely start watching the kid like a hawk though, and maybe have chemical-savvy papi give him a severe talking-to.

As to the broader question--I'd call the police on a family member if I had strong probable cause that they had done something very illegal. I'm not sure how I feel about involving the cops as a preventative measure except in extreme cases.

Great question though, I'm interested in seeing what other people have to say. :D

[northernwalker]

I brought this up to a collegue after an article last week about this scenario. He's into amateur rocketry, so it's not impossible to him that theoretical kid could have legitimate reasons for buying it. However, the details that came out made it pretty clear that he was planning to do in the school.

As to the broader question--I'd call the police on a family member if I had strong probable cause that they had done something very illegal. I'm not sure how I feel about involving the cops as a preventative measure except in extreme cases.

If I had good reason to believe that a family member had committed a violent crime (rape/murder/Ted Kaczynski) I'd call it in.

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, was this the kid who posted a bunch of threats on the wikipedia page for his school, and claimed he wanted to go to heaven and kill jesus?

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

I'd collect the child and talk to him/her.
If I didn't have a garden to spread the stuff in, I might call the cops to find out how to dispose of it. And I'd start watching the kid like a hawk for other signs of a propensity to blow things up.

[northernwalker]

It did not occur to me to dump it in the garden. D'oh!

Dumping it in the garden...

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

well, it IS fertilizer. :)

[herveus.livejournal.com]

B followed by a frank conversation with the child. Calling the cops wouldn't even be on the radar.

On the other hand, the scenario plays funny to me. I don't know (and couldn't readily discern) if ammonium nitrate is a mailable substance. A ten pound parcel would be about the size of two five pound bags of sugar and would not fit in most mail boxes.

I haven't looked recently, but when I was that age, I could go over to my local garden store and buy ammonium/sodium/potassium nitrate by the pound. They probably would sell me a 50 pound bag (more or less) if I wanted one. I had access to wettable sulfur powder and other useful substances to facilitate making various pyrotechnic substances.

Heck, to make NH3NO3 go blam takes considerable effort. The usual formulation involves mixing it with diesel fuel. It's been a very useful farm explosive in the past. You do need a blasting cap to set it off. It's also what was used in Oklahoma City.

NH3NO3

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Isn't that what blew up that port city in texas when they had the big fire, too?

Re: NH3NO3

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Yep. The ship burned for quite a while before it cooked off and blew up. It is pretty stable unless you heat it up. Ten pounds is going to be hard to get to the explosive state that way.

[kelsey-lynne1.livejournal.com]

Late to the party. I love option E cause some people would actually do that first. LOL.

I'd talk to my spouse frist, then my kid, and then seek pro help if needed.

[northernwalker]

Makes sense- and I figured there would be some people who'd pick E, but nobody on my flist, because everyone here is smart. :)