Man threatened to blow up city with TV remote
Posted by Xeno on February 12, 2008
Australian police declared a state of emergency after a drunken man threatened to blow up half a city with his TV remote control.Geoffrey Fryatt, 57, who lived in a luxury golf resort in Brisbane, was arrested by paramilitary police after terrifying neighbours by threatening to detonate a store of chemicals with the remote.
“One push of the button will blow up half of Brisbane,” he shouted during a stand off with police. Fryatt’s lawyer told the Brisbane District Court that his client lost control after losing much of his life savings in a fraud, reports the Brisbane Times.
“People are genuinely scared of sudden explosions,” the judge said before sentencing him to a year’s probation. “Frightening members of the public with threats of bombs and bomb hoaxes has a much greater impact than it once did.”
Fryatt was concerned the sentence could interrupt his plans to do humanitarian aid work overseas but the judge told him: “Let’s get you right before we send you off to a third world country.”
Source: AnaNova
