The Helena schoolyard bomb that wasn’t
Residents across the Treasure State feared the worst on Tuesday, Oct. 15, believing a Montana elementary school playground had been the site of a terrorist act. Reports of a detonated homemade bomb spread internationally, reaching news outlets such as CNN, Al Jazeera and the NY Post. First, the “bomb” never detonated, and secondly, the device in question was merely a water bottle filled with washers, nuts and bolts, along with a non-flammable unidentified liquid, according to USA Today. A homeless man had carried the bottle from construction site near the school, and then left it behind on the playground.