Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:37 am by Capt_Tom
In the sixties I was a teenager and went with my neighbor to clean out an old building. There was a safe inside, with the back cover missing from the door. There was a device on the back of the lock that contained a vial of tear gas. He was going to trash the safe, so I asked for the tear gas. I thought it to be cool to have. I took it home, wrapped in a dishtowel and put in my drawer. My mother was putting some clothes in the drawer and saw the dishtowel. Upon removing it from the drawer, it un-ravelled and the tube hit the floor. She said that she saw the liquid, and then it was gone. The vapor immediately hit her and she stumbled out of the house, struggling to breath and eyes burning. The fire department was kind enough to loan a ventilation fan which ran for two days before we could go back in. While it was fun staying at a friends river house, it was not fun being on restriction for two weeks.
Later (in the 70's), I went to work for Mosler Safe Company. The third safe that I serviced had the all too familiar vials. I was VERY careful not to repeat the nightmare.
By the way, this is my first post on this site. I only recently discovered it through mention on another site. Looks good!