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Jonathan Grant Thompson, the man behind the popular science-focused YouTube channel King of Random has been charged with two counts of second-degree felony possession of an explosive device.
Thompson, 37, runs the King of Random YouTube channel, boasting about 200 videos and 8.9 million subscribers. His videos are of science experiments and are in the vein of science-based shows on networks such as the Discovery Channel.
Thompson has been making videos and putting them on YouTube since 2010. His videos have garnered more than 1.6 billion combined views.
According to the article the first complaint "resulted from a citizen complaint via Facebook Messenger on June 15 about Thompson exploding a dry ice bomb", and for the second:
Thompson said a friend had left him a bag of powder, which he believed to be from a deconstructed firework.
After lighting a couple of small "control fires" Thompson and Timothy Burgess, 20, of Ontario, Canada, ignited a larger pile which exploded, the police report states. According to the report, firefighters heard the explosion from the nearby fire station.
Google Maps shows there is a South Jordan fire station 0.2 miles from Thompson's home.
The explosion left Burgess with small particles of burned material embedded in his arms, charges say.
Burgess was charged with one count of second-degree felony possession of an explosive device. Court records show prosecutors have asked a judge to issue a $15,000 warrant for his arrest
Originally spotted via AvE's channel.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday January 18 2018, @11:07PM (1 child)
I guess this is why all the "professional" shows on Discovery tell you to not try this at home. It might not be so much about safety (even tho that clearly is a thing) but more about liability and getting the appropriate permissions. If one takes something like Mythbusters they tend(ed) not to blow shit up in places where there could be other people but far out in the middle of nowhere in some special test site / Fire department training facility / Police department bomb disposal area etc. That said I seem to recall Mythbusters fucking up once or twice and sending projectiles into residential areas and there was much problems with that. Which probably made them move even further out into the desert for any such experiments.
So he had a "mystery" bag of some kind of powder which he believed might be from a firework (so some kind of gunpowder then?) and he thought it was a great idea to light some of it in a residential zone? Sure. Genius. Unless his home was some kind of remote farm or UNABomber style shack out in the woods that was just stupid and a horribly bad idea.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by captain normal on Thursday January 18 2018, @11:36PM
That is one thing I find funny. Why do stuff like this in your backyard when there is so much open space nearby in that part of Utah?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--