[lopezsokero]

By Paul Thissen

Contra Costa Times

Posted: 12/07/2011 06:17:36 AM PST
Updated: 12/07/2011 10:23:39 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge


A Dublin Police officer stands near the exit hole of a cannonball in the second... ( Doug Duran )


A cannonball misfired by the "Mythbusters" TV show crew blasted through an East Dublin home Tuesday afternoon while its occupants were asleep. It then smashed through a window of a minivan parked a few hundred feet away.

No one was injured, and the home's residents did not wake up until the dust was settling on top of them, said an Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
The cannon was shot at the Sheriff's Office bomb range behind Santa Rita Jail about 4:15 p.m., said the spokesman, J.D. Nelson, who is also a consultant for the Discovery Channel TV show. He had been at the site with show producers all day, he said, though he said he was not by the cannon when it fired.
Producers have used that cannon

View Mythbusters cannonball in a larger map

-- which they built -- at the range more than 50 times without incident, Nelson said.Tuesday was different.
The cannonball was supposed to go through a few water-filled barrels and a concrete wall. Instead, it passed over the barrels, through the wall, and then took a "very unfortunate bounce that sent the ball skyward," Nelson said.

About 700 feet away, it bounced in front of a home on Cassata Place, then tore upward through the home's front door and out midway up the back wall of the two-story house. Light could be seen shining through a round, cantaloupe-sized hole from inside the house out to Tassajara Road.

The cannonball then bounced at least once more, crossing the four-lane Tassajara Road, before smashing the window and dashboard of the minivan. It came to rest inside the vehicle, parked in a driveway at Bellevue Circle and Springvale Road."We had some tremendous bad luck and some tremendous good luck" in that no one was hurt, Nelson said.

Jasbir Gill owns the minivan; he and his children had just arrived home.

"It's scary," Gill said. "I was in the van five minutes before this happened." His home is on the east side of Tassajara.

He said he would like the show's producers to fix his car and to apologize for the damage.
"Mythbusters," which is produced for Discovery Channel by Beyond Productions, issued a statement through publicist Katherine Nelson late Tuesday that said the production company "is currently assessing the situation and working with those whose property was affected."

Sheriff's Office spokesman J.D. Nelson said he did not know the exact size, speed or weight of the cannonball. The bomb range has been closed pending an investigation, he said.

It's not the first time a home in the area has been hit by stray fire.

In summer 2007, an errant bullet blasted a baseball-sized hole in a San Ramon home from the nearby Camp Parks firing range, leading to an FBI investigation.




http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-...520?source=rss

[arrismVam]

Hahahahaha! Holy crap!

LOL @ an unfortunate bounce

[Innockcroff]

Will we get to see the actual show aired? I hope so, I'd like to see that "oh shit" moment on their faces.

[pprropeciaaa]

Hahahahaha! Holy crap!

LOL @ an unfortunate bounce

You know, something like this was bound to happen someday? And that day has arrived!

y_rofl.gif

[Dwerfsd]

Yeah that's a hell of a blooper reel!

[newwebstar]

Will we get to see the actual show aired? I hope so, I'd like to see that "oh shit" moment on their faces.

Once the lawsuits are settled, if it comes to that, You can dam near take it to the bank, they will show it!!!

This is the best dam Publicity/advertizing for that show that has ever happened!

[KinicsBonee]

misfired .... it bounced Rubber bullet?

[hernkingAnank]

I volunteer to spank Kari Byron for her transgression.

http://www.break.com/index/mythbuste...rons-butt.html

[popandopulus]

Wow, that's crazy! And they guy was in his van 5 minutes before a cannon ball went through it? I guess it wasn't his time.

[pooncophy]

Ha the whole show is an accident waiting to happen. That's what is so entertaining. Sometimes their safety preparations or lack of can make you cringe in anticipation. Perhaps they need to put a "ballistic" glass screen at the end of the range.

[trettegeani]

News video at link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...khO_video.html




‘MythBusters’ cannon ball accident caused by ‘unforeseen bounce’



Video: The stars of the TV show 'Mythbusters' visit a California neighborhood to survey the damage after one of their experiments went bad. A cannonball missed its target and careened into homes, knocking holes in walls. (Dec. 8)

The Discovery Channel show “MythBusters” made a serious case for “don’t try this at home” when one of its science experiments involving homemade cannons went awry, crashing through a San Francisco-area home and landing on a minivan during taping on Dec. 6.


A stunt for the TV show "MythBusters" sent an errant cannonball through a California family's house and into a parked minivan nearby.

(Dec. 7)No one was injured as a result of the accident, however, the show’s hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, said they planned to meet with the owners of the damaged property, according to the TV Column’s Lisa de Moraes. The show, which recently made the list of top shows enjoyed by conservative Republicans, was filming on a closed set at the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office bomb range with a safety expert on site. Writes de Moraes:

Unfortunately, Discovery acknowledged, “during the testing, a cannonball took an unforeseen bounce from a safety berm.”

And by “unforeseen bounce,” Discovery means that the cannonball — which was between softball and cantaloupe in size, according to various reports — missed the water vats and blew through a cinder-block wall late Tuesday afternoon.

Then, according to news reports and statements from the sheriff’s office, the errant cannonball stormed off the set and headed over to a residential neighborhood, bounced off a sidewalk, tore through someone’s front door, zipped up the stairs and through an occupied bedroom, blew out the back of the house, blasted over a six-lane thoroughfare and skimmed the top of another house, before brutally attacking a parked Toyota minivan.
So cannonballs can bounce. Another myth busted!

Alameda County Sheriff’s Department spokesman J.D. Nelson said the cannon built for the experiment was used more than 50 times without incident,
according to the Associated Press:

Sheriff’s deputies are still measuring how, exactly, the cannonball flew from a bomb range in the rolling hills flanking a suburban San Francisco Bay area neighborhood and rocketed into the front door of a home and through its master bedroom before landing in a neighbor’s parked minivan.

Hosts for the Discovery Channel show fired the cannonball Tuesday as they filmed an episode testing whether other types of projectiles shot from a cannon would pick up the same speed and have the same impact as the steel ball. Later, the production team plans to film flying stone cannonballs at a rock quarry in Northern California.

See how “MythBusters” stacks up among conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, according to a study by the media-research company Experian Simmons:

More on “MythBusters”:

Cannonball misfires for ‘MythBusters’
TV Column: Discovery’s ‘Mythbusters’ accidentally shoots cannon into neighborhood

[Kimaamighed]

You can dam near take it to the bank, they will show it!!! IMO that will never happen 'cause people in show biz like that are never wrong.

[viagracheapest]

IMO that will never happen 'cause people in show biz like that are never wrong.

I quite disagree!

I can see a whole episode they will do, Their fans will demand it, and in someways this is the greatest pr the show can get.

Once the legal shit is out of the way, and they figure out how to present it, maybe as the top of a bloopers show, YOU will be able to take it to the bank they will show it.

With the right buzz in the media, their ratings could go through the roof!

[Gorlummm]

Fuck them and their egocentric Hollyweird/show biz incompetent* bullshit.

"Show biz kids making movies of themselves you know they don't give a fuck anybody else."

*clearly incompetent for sending a fucking cannonball downrange thru someone's house and into someone's minivan terrorizing the neighborhood in the process - I hope they get sued into 8 digits as they surely deserve it, I know I would - yes, it would have truly been 'unfortunate' if someone had been killed or maimed

[hictchewisa]

Just thinking out loud; I like that show but I can't stand the to fags that host it.