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Kids never play with guns unless you are under the direction of the police!
You could do something incredibly stupid like this and almost kill somebody.
What they were under the direction of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department???
I guess the local fuzz don't know as much about guns as they claim to.
'MythBusters' hosts: Sorry about that cannonball Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, December 8, 2011 "Mythbusters" stars Jamie Hyneman, left, and Adam Savage, leave one of the damaged homes after apologizing to the family after an errant cannonball fired during a filming of an episode of their TV show Tuesday hit the home in Dublin, Calif. Authorities continue with their investigation on how, exactly, the cannonball flew from Alameda County Sheriff's range several miles away, hitting several homes and a minivan before coming to rest on the front seat. Images The special-effects gurus who host the television show "MythBusters" were cast Wednesday in an ignominious role: visiting a home on a quiet street in Dublin and apologizing to a family for firing a 30-pound cannonball through their front door a day earlier. "Come in," said Hitha Shetty, 39, ushering show hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage across a floor still speckled with paint and plaster. Behind Shetty was damage more likely to be found on a pirate ship than a two-story tract home. A round hole scarred an interior wall and, beyond that, another hole showed where the cannonball had exited the upstairs master bedroom as Shetty's wife, Seema, napped with the couple's 2-year-old son. After assuring Shetty, his two children, his wife and her parents that they would never again blast a home with heavy ordnance, Hyneman and Savage said the incident was the worst thing that had happened during thousands of experiments over eight years on the Discovery Channel show. They also promised they wouldn't air the footage they had filmed of the near-catastrophic cannon shot. "It's a wake-up call," said Savage, 44, who like his 56-year-old partner lives in San Francisco. "Honestly, the feeling of embarrassment is not something we're indulging in right now. We feel for the families and the people affected by this." He added, "Some people watch our show and think that we're reckless. Others watch our show and they see we take safety seriously. The fact is, the latter is the case." Savage and Hyneman were not present at the Alameda County bomb ordnance range - which the show has used for years and is nearly 1,000 yards west of the Shetty home - when the cannon fired at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday. They said the three other stars of the show - Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara - had been "calibrating" a homemade cannon, firing a ball made of either steel or cast iron into water barrels and a brick wall to make sure it had the same power as a historical cannon. Stone cannonballs The ultimate goal, they said, was to go to a more remote location and use the cannon to fire stone cannonballs into a replica castle wall. "The myth was whether or not a stone cannonball could actually breach a castle's walls," Savage said. However, Hyneman said, the crew suffered "muzzle lift," and the cannonball arced across Dublin. It bounced on the Shettys' driveway on Cassata Place before racing through their home and flying across six-lane Tassajara Road. It then bounced off the roof of a second home before smashing into another resident's Toyota Sienna minivan, coming to rest on the floorboards. "When you start to look into the data of what cannons can actually do, it's actually quite shocking," Savage said. "They're very efficient projectile-hurling weapons. It's a lot of power, and the power got away from us." The shot took the Alameda County Sheriff's Department by surprise as well. The agency, which runs the ordnance range, halted all non-emergency operations there pending a review of safety policies, said department spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson. Before receiving his visitors, Hitha Shetty said the novelty of the situation didn't soothe his anger. He said residents should have known a dangerous experiment was being staged. He also hinted at firing back with a lawsuit. "The kids are usually playing there," he said of the path of the cannonball. "I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. And, of course, they need to pay for this. Not just the physical damage, but everything else." Talk of the town As he spoke, his street filled with neighbors who wanted to see the dent in the pavement where the ball bounced and the hole in the front door. Some kids snapped photos and pocketed shards of concrete as souvenirs. "You get to see this probably only once in your lifetime," said Sameer Paila, 9, after he took video with his dad's iPhone. The show hosts signed autographs in the street but resisted humor. After Savage posed for a picture with two neighborhood girls, he said, "You'll forgive us for not smiling. It's not smiling time." Chronicle staff writer Henry K. Lee contributed to this report. E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.
Errant 'Mythbusters' cannonball hits home in Dublin By Paul Thissen Contra Costa Times Posted: 12/06/2011 04:26:22 PM PST A cannonball misfired by the "Mythbusters" TV show crew blasted through an East Dublin home Tuesday afternoon while its occupants were asleep. It then smashed through a window of a minivan parked a few hundred feet away. No one was injured, and the home's residents did not wake up until the dust was settling on top of them, said an Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman. The cannon was shot at the Sheriff's Office bomb range behind Santa Rita Jail about 4:15 p.m., said the spokesman, J.D. Nelson, who is also a consultant for the Discovery Channel TV show. He had been at the site with show producers all day, he said, though he said he was not by the cannon when it fired. Producers have used that cannon -- which they built -- at the range more than 50 times without incident, Nelson said. Tuesday was different. The cannonball was supposed to go through a few water-filled barrels and a concrete wall. Instead, it passed over the barrels, through the wall, and then took a "very unfortunate bounce that sent the ball skyward," Nelson said. About 700 feet away, it bounced in front of a home on Cassata Place, then tore upward through the home's front door and out midway up the back wall of the two-story house. Light could be seen shining through a round, cantaloupe-sized hole from inside the house out to Tassajara Road. The cannonball then bounced at least once more, crossing the four-lane Tassajara Road, before smashing the window and dashboard of the minivan. It came to rest inside the vehicle, parked in a driveway at Bellevue Circle and Springvale Road. "We had some tremendous bad luck and some tremendous good luck" in that no one was hurt, Nelson said. Jasbir Gill owns the minivan; he and his children had just arrived home. "It's scary," Gill said. "I was in the van five minutes before this happened." His home is on the east side of Tassajara. He said he would like the show's producers to fix his car and to apologize for the damage. "Mythbusters," which is produced for Discovery Channel by Beyond Productions, issued a statement through publicist Katherine Nelson late Tuesday that said the production company "is currently assessing the situation and working with those whose property was affected." Sheriff's Office spokesman J.D. Nelson said he did not know the exact size, speed or weight of the cannonball. The bomb range has been closed pending an investigation, he said. It's not the first time a home in the area has been hit by stray fire. In summer 2007, an errant bullet blasted a baseball-sized hole in a San Ramon home from the nearby Camp Parks firing range, leading to an FBI investigation. Camp Parks is the home of the U.S. Army's 91st Division, and is a training facility for more than 11,000 reservists. Calls to Camp Parks on Tuesday night went unanswered. Staff writer Rick Hurd contributed to this report. Contact Paul Thissen at 925-847-2122. Follow him at Twitter.com/pthissen.
'Mythbusters' TV crew fire cannonball, hits home Dec. 7, 2011 08:23 AM Associated Press DUBLIN, Calif. -- An East Dublin family is no doubt still stunned by a cannonball blast that hit their home. The TV show "MythBusters" was firing cannonball at the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb range behind the Santa Rita Jail on Tuesday when it misfired. Sheriff's spokesman J.D. Nelson told the Contra Costa Times (http://bit.ly/umCZnD) that no one was injured and the home's residents didn't even wake up until the dust was settled -- literally on top of them. After tearing through the home, the cannonball smashed through a window of a parked minivan a few hundred feet away. Nelson is also a consultant for the Discovery Channel TV show. He says producers have used the cannon that they built at the range more than 50 times without incident.
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