‘This Bike is a Pipe Bomb’ Strikes Again!

Several years ago, there was a huge incident at Ohio University where the bomb squad was called to inspect a possible bomb, which just turned out to be a sticker on a bicycle. According to Wikipedia:

On March 2, 2006 at 5:30 am an Ohio University police officer spotted a bicycle attached to the Oasis restaurant bearing a promotional sticker for the band. The officer saw the words, “This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb” and became concerned. The area was cordoned off, and part of the campus was closed for several hours. The bicycle was subsequently destroyed by the Athens bomb squad despite assurances from the bike’s owner that it was just a sticker. The owner, a graduate student, was initially charged with inducing panic, a misdemeanor. However, the charges were dropped a few days later. Later the student was awarded money for the damages to his bicycle…

Well… they’re back!

By Janet DiGiacomo
CNN.com

(CNN) — A bicycle with a sticker advertising a Florida punk-folk band forced the evacuation of a Memphis, Tennessee, airport terminal late Monday afternoon, authorities said.

A pilot alerted airport police when he saw a bike with a sticker that read “this bike is a pipe bomb” parked near the passenger ramps of Terminal C at Memphis International Airport, according to the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority.

“Terminal C ticketing and baggage claim at the airport were cleared out,” said airport spokesman John Greaud. “A K-9 unit responded and found no explosive materials at the scene.”

“This Bike is a Pipe Bomb” is the name of a band based in Pensacola, Florida, and this is not the first time in the band’s 12-year history the name has caused a commotion.

Bikes sporting similar stickers at college campuses in Ohio and Philadelphia led to building closures, arrests and the bikes’ destruction by bomb squads acting on the assumption the sticker was announcing a real threat.

The owner of the Memphis bike was taken into custody by airport police, Greaud said, but was later released because they had no grounds to hold him. Greaud said federal authorities were discussing possible federal charges, but a federal source said it was “a non-event.”