Animated arduino powered graduation caps are pretty common, but perhaps not in Florida. When one recent Florida grad placed such a device on his mortar board, the police incited a (minor) bomb scare, confiscated the cap mounted display, and the bomb squad destroyed it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/student-causes-bomb-scare-at-graduation-with-decorative-ensemble/ar-AAFchE5
Can Cevik, a computer engineering graduate, said he was just trying to be festive earlier this week when he taped a battery-powered digital device to his graduation cap, displaying the message "FIU 2019." ... "Just to clear things up, my cap had an Arduino Uno with a 7-segment display on it and was powered by a 9V battery; it was not an explosive," he said. ... They eventually cleared him to enter the venue, but only after providing him with a new -- plain -- graduation cap. ... Police then called the bomb squad and destroyed the original cap. ... FIU Police Captain Delrish Moss told local reporters that officers acted out of an abundance of caution.
"While that seems very innocent and looks very innocent, it also has the potential to scare people," Moss told local Fox affiliate WSVN. "A police officer spotted it and took the necessary precautions."
This article has a picture of the cap (which appears to be a pretty low effort affair). https://www.waaytv.com/content/national/513449462.html
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @03:07PM (2 children)
If they couldn't identify this as not being a bomb immediately, they are grossly incompetent. Just because something has a power source and wires, does not mean that it's a bomb. This reminds me of that asinine response to those Cartoon Network figures made of blinky lights from years ago.
I've got limited training on the matter and it would have been abundantly clear immediately, that this was just an LED array. If they couldn't tell based upon the weight of the cap and the reaction the student had to being stopped that it wasn't dangerous, then they should turn in their badges. This sounds more like a case of them wanting to blow shit up rather than a legitimate security problem.
Is this really what we've come to? An entire country of cowards?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @05:09PM
... land of the brave.
It has to be the epitome of efficiency. 3 planes, two skyscrapers destroyed and <3k killed... in 17 years, 300M live under constant domestically-inflicted terror and paying the terrorists with their taxes.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 02 2019, @07:17PM
Public servants, that should be assumed until proven otherwise.
🌻🌻 [google.com]