I caused a bomb scare on a military installation and got in less trouble than Ahmed Mohamed

Last updated on: September 20, 2015 at 11:56 am by Dan Wilkinson

I caused a bomb scare on a military installation and got in less trouble than Ahmed Mohamed 2015-09-20T11:56:51-06:00 Dan Wilkinson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

View image | gettyimages.com

I hadn’t even thought of this story in relation to the Ahmed Mohamed incident until I saw this tweet and realized that I knew exactly what happens when there’s really a bomb scare — because I’d once caused one myself — and that Ahmed’s story bore no resemblance to my own experience.

It was the summer of 2008 and I was installing WiMAX internet service for a three-story support building located in the middle of an Air Force base.

The project involved accessing the roof through a trapdoor in a bathroom on the third floor, setting up an antenna on the roof, running a cable down the outside of the building to the middle of the second floor, drilling a hole through the brick wall for the cable to enter the building, pulling a hundred feet of cable through that hole to the inside of the building, and then running the cable through various conduits and ceilings and walls to reach its final location in the basement.

I had finished drilling the hole through the wall and was in the middle of pulling the cable into the building when someone came jogging up the hallway telling everyone to evacuate immediately. I dropped my tools and filed out of the building along with the hundred or so other people who worked there.

We gathered at the designated evacuation point about a block away and watched as fire engines, police cars and an EOD team — complete with bomb suit and bomb robot — surrounded the building. Word quickly spread that there was a bomb.

After more than a few tense minutes, one of the cops walked across the street to our group and asked if anyone was doing work outside the building. I bewilderedly stepped forward and said that I had been. He asked if had left some of my stuff outside the building and I said that I’d left my ladder and a box of network cable on the ground outside.

It turned out that while I was inside pulling the cable, someone had pulled up in the parking lot, seen a large unmarked box with a wire sticking out of it sitting by the side of the building, and had called 911 to report a potential bomb.

The cop asked what I was working on, and I told him, and he told me I shouldn’t leave stuff like that unattended. He seemed relieved that it wasn’t anything more serious. Then the fire department and police officers and EOD team all left and everyone went back inside to resume their work day. I went back to finishing my project, now with a funny story to tell my wife when I got home from work: “Guess what? I caused a bomb scare today!”

Of course, there are a few important differences between Ahmed Mohamed’s story and mine: I’m a middle-aged white guy with a boring name, and, unfortunately for him, he’s a 14-year-old brown kid with an Arabic name. And, because of that, he got shipped off to a juvenile detention center in handcuffs to be fingerprinted and interrogated and then suspended from school, while I merely had my work day interrupted for an hour.

“Assumptions and fear don’t keep us safe — they hold us back.”
—Hillary Clinton

Dan Wilkinson

Dan is the Executive Editor of the Unfundamentalist Christians blog. He is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats.

Current Events

#IStandWithAhmed

Previous Post

September 17, 2015

Love in the Anthropocene

Next Post

September 22, 2015 I'm not a fan of the Pope and you shouldn't be either

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews Christian History Christian Issues Christian Spirituality Current Events Fundamentalism Islam John Shore LGBT Movie Reviews Poetry Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz