Why is it that smoke alarms always beep in the middle of the night? It never happens on a Saturday afternoon, when grabbing a ladder and a replacement battery is no problem. Then there are the overly-sensitive kind that beep if you let the bacon go two minutes too long. That seems to be the kind that was driving Leroy Mason batty. Or maybe his alarm was just too close to the stove.
Mason had complained previously that fire crews would not move the detector after it had gone off on other occasions. So, when he set it off again while cooking Monday afternoon, Mason “took it upon himself to relocate the smoke detector” — by blasting it to bits, according to state police.
Yep. Fed up with the squawking alarm, Mason grabbed a 20 gauge smoothbore and gave it a load of lead. That might not have attracted much attention if Mason lived in a rural area, but . . .
The shotgun blast hit a wall that Mason, 68, shares with a neighboring apartment, according to cops. And the alarm attracted fire and rescue personnel, who arrived and disarmed Mason.
Not content to leave bad enough alone . . .
He allegedly rearmed himself with a Colt .45 handgun and went outside, pointed it at first responders and demanded they return the shotgun.
And that’s why Mr. Mason’s in jail, awaiting trial on aggravated assault and reckless endangerment charges. So while we can certainly sympathize with his frustration at having to deal with a hyperactive smoke alarm, we’re left with no other choice but to stick him with our irresponsible gun owner of the day for how he chose to remedy the situation.
Is a .20 gauge shotgun as powerful as .9mm?
Smaller the number, the bigger the gauge so that must be a damn cannon he shot.
Wow! According to my calculations, a .20 guage shotgun would shoot a 5 lb ball. 😱
Yea, a lead ball that diameter would weigh 5 pounds.
20 gauge is smaller than 12 gauge which is smaller than 10 gauge. the largest i have heard of is 4 gauge. gauge is worked out by the number of perfectly round lead balls of said diameter to the pound so a 20 gauge would be 20 lead balls equaling a pound of all th same size. 20 gauge is favored by many smaller women for competition shooting as it has less recoil than a 12 gauge
I own a 2 gauge
https://youtu.be/xaWIUEEnuGs
Reply to Josh:
You built that!?! that is pretty f’ing epic. Looks awesome to boot! Bravo good sir. Have any videos about construction? Do i dare call that a modern Blunderbuss?
Death Valley Scotty had a 4 gauge punt gun to rain fire into the central courtyard of his castle in Death Valley. At the age of ten I fell in love with big guns.
This guy sounds as dumb as some of those inner-city dwellers that are constantly fighting with and getting shot by the police.
Old goofball couldn’t just grab a broom and knock it off the ceiling?!? Hold my beer and watch this Vern😏
Never use a hammer when a boomstick will do the job.
Ugh. So many directions I could go here . 30years on a career dept. he wants us to move his detector ….. ok if you’re an 80 y/o woman , glad to help, or maybe you could stop burning your food, but that would require one to,be sober most times.
And since one of our guys was shot ,while off duty but responding as a volly ( 4 shot 2 killed Webster NY ) we don’t react kindly to such threats .
Neat thing is cops got all sorts of rules, we don’t know any better , you mean I can’t bury a flathead in his skull ?!?!? My bad .
This makes me wonder, are firefighters and/or first responders allowed to carry on the job? If not why the hell aren’t you?
Generally, no, they can’t carry.
Why? Because only “trained professionals” can have guns, and Fire/EMS don’t get that training (and there are a few semi-legit arguments also – not compelling, IMHO, but worth raising).
No they almost universally cannot. This is one of the reasons I only lasted about a short time as an EMT.
I got tired of being the ghettos Medicaid sponsored taxi, and fighting the drunk homeless guys and synth drug tweakers that seemed to be every other call. Nothing like sitting with a PT in a flooded ER for 3 hours while you listen to all the crazy dipshits on their bad trip screaming cause a nasty batch came out. To give you an idea of how bad a time this career was, my I left that job to work as a corrections officer instead. At least there I wasn’t going to get sued one day defending myself and they gave me backup and a can of OC if things got stupid.
Never work as a Paramedic/EMT, and if you must ONLY work for a metro service and never a private company. I know private companies are preferable for some things but not here. Watched the company absolutely bail on a Para/EMT crew because a PT was high and they had to fight him off the ambo and drive off calling the cops. Medics had black eyes bites on them, but when the family sued they were left hanging because “it’s not policy to abandon PT’s.” Unreal
I heard that .9mm is much slower than the 5.56 the police have, so really, what possible threat was he?
Is confiscating shotguns now the Fire Department’s job? (seriously, did they have legal standing to do that, or did they venture into robbery territory there?)
Oh, well, I guess he can be glad it wasn’t the Police Department, they would have shot him if he grabbed a handgun to retrieve his shotgun from them.
I’d recommend a heat detector instead of smoke if you folks are setting them off under normal cooking operations , or you could just move it a few feet ….
the old one we had did not go off as much as this one does. the new one is a “New Improved” one and it is already about 10 feet from the stove. we are in a rental so we have to just put up with the POS at least here in australia
Toni
Bunnings sell a kitchen smoke and heat detector that has a 10 year battery. I replaced old one, that went off all the time, in our kitchen about a year back and has not gone off without a reason.
may look into one of those when we build our own place. thankyou.
as it stands we jut take ours down now when we are cooking
A few feet? The nearest one to my stove must be 20 down the hall, yet I can’t even broil a steak without setting it off.
My wife thinks it is the timer for the oven. If I moved it further away, dinner would be even worse.
He lived in an apartment. Probably he couldn’t just move it.
The FD probably disarmed the old drunk so he wouldn’t hurt them or himself. He’s lucky someone didn’t smack him with a Haligan tool.
Leroy there doesn’t seem to have much on the ball. Well, a stint in the pokey should do him some good…he doesn’t have to cook his own meals there anyway.
Just a grumpy old fart…I’m almost there myself. But I hafta say, how many of us would love to blast that beeping POS after a long hard day as long as it didn’t affect a neighbor.
Tape part of a plastic bag over the damned thing.
Funny in the movies, but in real life…
i must say though there are times i would love to take our out to the range and blast it into a million pieces. ours goes off even making toast and that is only to a very light brown…..
Having had one of these ‘over active’ smoke alarms, I side totally with Leroy and jury nullification is in order.
If it’s your own house and you’re alone in there, do what you want… but yeah, putting a hole in your neighbor’s wall? Derp.
“He allegedly rearmed himself with a Colt .45 handgun and went outside, pointed it at first responders and demanded they return the shotgun…”
Guy’s lucky he’s in jail and not the hospital or morgue. Y’all wonder if alcohol was a factor here?
Nah, ya think maybe? Or Alzheimer’s.
now that his apartment is a radioactive waste site, he also gets to move if he is let ot any time soon.
Americium is nothing to mess around with. Just ask the radioactive boy scout.
And it’s thanks to this turdbreath that Diane Feinstein gets her panties in a wad… Or maybe we could ask that asswipe Prof from Fresno State (“Barbara Bush is a racist…”) what she thinks of Leroy. Next time take your meds, ya’ DBO.
And no, I’m not triggered. I just have the insane privilege to life in the People’s Asylum of Kalifonya and I’m waiting for MY meds to kick in…
Use to live in an apartment with an extra sensitive smoke alarm. I just took a small white cardboard box and stuck it over the cussed thing and pinned it in place with push pins – problem solved.
Wow that poor dude, sixty eight and laying on them DOC mattresses, no pillow, shit blanket. Dog food breakfast, lunch and dinner, that’s good for an old man’s diet. 68 I’d bet he’s not used to sharing a shower, and visiting while you take a shit. Next day, same same. … He Fucked Up
Mine hangs on a nail by the bedroom door, so I can grab it and hurl it on the bed before or after I start cooking!
DrDKW
Hrm, interesting behavior. Perhaps he was cooking meth?
I know how this works! Years ago I was looking in on my mother, aged 75 at the time, and when I came into her trailer there was a bunch of plastic and a circuit board all over the kitchen. Apparently the Smoke detector went off and she beat it to death with her cane. I’m sure that if she had a shotgun or other firearm she would have used that instead.
Fond memories of mom, RIP.
I see I’m not the only one who discerned that it is entirely possible that Mr. Mason may well have a wee bit of a drinking problem. Another fine example of how mixing gunpowder and alcohol is never a good idea. Perhaps a stretch in Crossbar Rehab will dry him out a little.
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