Hand Grenade

Hundreds of airline passengers were delayed yesterday afternoon at Baltimore-Washington International Airport when a female passenger put what turned out to be a novelty hand grenade through a luggage X-ray machine. Passengers were cleared from Concourse B about 5:35 p.m. and a bomb squad investigated, declaring the grenade harmless about an hour later, an airport spokesman said. Southwest Airlines held its flights for the delayed passengers. Officials ask that travelers carrying such devices tell security officers before they send the devices through the X-ray machine.

Two men who attempted to board a British Airways jet yesterday with a bag full of novelty hand grenades were described as "surprised" when the devices triggered an evacuation that delayed hundreds of passengers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Authorities ordered the closing and partial evacuation of the International Terminal. Several arriving and departing flights were delayed for hours, and hundreds of passengers were stranded in their planes or in the terminal. No charges were filed against the two men, who caught their flight to London two hours late.

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but Americans love them. We love them more than toasters, more than fridges, more than irons. During the last year alone, we bought 18 million full-size vacuum cleaners, says Clifford Wood, executive vice president of the Vacuum Cleaner Manufacturers Association in North Canton, Ohio, and the only household appliances we bought more of were fans and hair dryers. As a result, the multi-vac household is becoming the norm. But multi-vac doesn't mean a measly upright in the closet and DustBuster in the kitchen, says Bill McLoughlin, executive editor of HomeWorld Business magazine in Long Island, N.Y.; it means two or more full-size vacuum cleaners stashed away in different parts of the house, ready for whenever a vac attack strikes -- plus that DustBuster, and don't forget the Shop-Vac in the basement and the stick vac for the kid's room.

A 19-year-old Columbia man who menaced a mechanic with a hand grenade led police on a chase from Parkton through Baltimore and into Anne Arundel County yesterday morning, police said. The pursuit ended in Riviera Beach with a car crash, a helicopter pursuit and a canine search -- but no injury or explosion.The three-hour incident began when a car broke down shortly before midnight on Interstate 83 near Parkton, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.A wrecker towed the driver's 1997 Oldsmobile Bravada to the Parkton Exxon in the 19000 block of York Road, Toohey said.

A 19-year-old Columbia man who menaced a mechanic with a hand grenade led police on a chase from Parkton through Baltimore and into Anne Arundel County yesterday morning, police said. The pursuit ended in Riviera Beach with a car crash, a helicopter pursuit and a canine search -- but no injury or explosion.The three-hour incident began when a car broke down shortly before midnight on Interstate 83 near Parkton, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.The driver called AAA for assistance, and a wrecker towed his 1997 Oldsmobile Bravada to the Parkton Exxon in the 19000 block of York Road, Toohey said.

About 30 regional artists have contributed works to "Easter Egg!" (E. Bunny, curator), the current show at Fells Point MAP (the temporary Fells Point gallery run by Maryland Art Place). Each work has the egg as its theme -- the egg as Sputnik, for instance, or the egg as hand grenade -- and they're all for sale in a silent auction currently being conducted by MAP, with proceeds to be split between the artists and MAP.On Saturday from noon to 3 p.m., there will be an egg decorating workshop, with children welcome.

Three men, one armed with what appeared to be a hand grenade, robbed a store of an undetermined amount of money Sunday, county police said.Three men entered the Dollar Bills store in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway about 6 p.m. and one asked the manager for a job application. When the manager turned away from the counter, another man, wearing a ski mask, displayed what appeared to be a hand grenade and ordered the employees and two customers to the back of the store and told them to sit on the floor.

The proposal to remove the George Sugarman sculpture from the plaza outside the U. S. District Courthouse downtown is as wrong-headed as was the attempt to prevent it from being put there in the first place, two decades ago.The sculpture belongs where it is. Removing it would set a terrible example. And the reason given -- that it's a security risk -- is a far-fetched fear, being used as an excuse to get rid of a piece of art that some people simply don't like -- just as it was back then.

Twenty-nine gun owners traded their revolvers, shotguns and rifles to Baltimore County police yesterday for tickets to country western star Reba McEntire's concert in Baltimore next month.Ms. McEntire offered the tickets to the concert, scheduled April 10 at the Baltimore Arena, to the first 100 people who turned in guns to Baltimore County police through her "tickets for guns" program.The 29 firearms -- plus a hand grenade -- were dropped off at the annex of county police headquarters on Kenilworth Avenue in Towson, said police Capt.

The former owner of a Pikesville jewelry store was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with robbing four banks, three of which the robber had threatened to blow up with a hand grenade.Bruce David Schein, 35, allegedly told police "that he was not a criminal person, but that he had fallen on hard times, and had lost his business and was about to lose his house," according to District Court charging documents.Detective Philip R. Wood also wrote in the charging documents that Mr. Schein, of the first block of Jones Falls Terrace, said the robberies were "an act of desperation."