Video: Mythbusters Cannonball Goes Wrong, Hits Home And Minivan


UPDATED The cannonball was supposed to blast through an array of water barrels and a cinderblock wall. Supposed to. Instead it hit the wall, a hill and Jasbir Gill’s Toyota Sienna. Now do you see why they tell you not to try this at home?

The accident occurred Tuesday afternoon at an Alameda County Police bomb range adjacent to Santa Rita Jail, about a half mile outside of Dublin. The gun had lifted slightly from its intended position just before it fired, putting the steel round over the water barrels, off the hillside, and 700 yards East.

There it bounced through the front door of a home, up the front stairs, through a bedroom—past a sleeping family—out the wall, over a six-lane road, and on through the van’s front passenger window. Nobody was injured, though Gill was understandably peeved. “I’m angry and lucky to be alive. Anybody could have been hit by this,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Side note: Do they make apology cards for this sort of thing? Like, “Sorry I blew out your windows from a half-mile” or “I totally didn’t think that was plugged in” or “Who expected alligators down there? Not me.” They should [SFGate]


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