Police: Bottle Bomb Incidents Highlight 'Serious Dangers'

Howard County police are warning residents of a new, potentially dangerous threat: "bottle bombs."

By mixing household chemicals and aluminum foil in a plastic soda bottle, bottle bomb creators, which learn their craft on the Internet with few danger warnings, have discovered a potent chemical reaction that explodes the bottle, sending chemicals throughout the air, police said in a press release issued Wednesday.

“Victims exposed to the chemicals ... could require medical treatment as a result of injuries to the skin, eyes and respiratory tract,” police said in the statement.

In Howard County, there have been five bottle bomb incidents since the beginning of the year, and nine in 2011, police said.

In two recent incidents, police found parts of a plastic bottle and aluminum foil in a family’s drive in Woodbine and one detonated near a child on Thunder Hill Road in Columbia, according to the release.

The child was not injured, according to police.

In February, three juveniles were investigated for detonating bottle bombs that caused the “complete destruction of metal mailboxes,” wrote police. The juveniles were required to attend a fire and bottle bomb safety course to teach them about the serious dangers of bottle bombs, police said.

Police asked residents to be on the lookout for bottle bombs and asked anyone who sees one to call 911 immediately.