Reality has officially crossed over into comic book-style science fiction now that a pair of 18-year-olds in Greensboro, North Carolina, are facing a long list of criminal charges after police say they used a homemade plasma cannon to break into a high school, pulling off a crime that sounds like it belongs in the pages of a Spider-Man comic.
According to court records reported by WFMY News 2 and FOX8, Solomon Caravello-Bell and Chayce Harricharan were arrested after police responded to a burglary at Smith High School around 2 a.m. on July 5. The cops allege that the pair, along with a juvenile who was later released to a parent, used what the court described as a “homemade plasma cannon” or a “powerful explosive” to burn a bush, melt a hole through a plexiglass entrance door, and gain entrance to the school.
What the authorities defined as a “plasma cannon” is up for debate, as they didn’t seem to go into detail. The very first link on a cursory Google search brings up an instruction guide from Indestructible.com that teaches you how to build a “Giant Double Barrel Plasma Cannon: 6 Steps.” A little below that, I get short-form videos from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, all demonstrating how to build a homemade plasma cannon with some watercooler jugs.
How to Make Your Own Plasma Cannon (Not for breaking and entering)
If those plasma cannons are anything like the ones these kids made, then a plasma cannon is nothing more than two water jugs with holes drilled into either end, essentially creating a massive gun barrel. A tube is inserted into one end that is attached to a common handheld gas-powered blowtorch that you could pick up at Home Depot and the like. When the torch is ignited, a ball of flame rockets through the tubing and into the water jugs, causing an explosion of plasma that bursts out the opposite end. It’s a blast so powerful that, as you’ll see in the video below, it can seemingly make a piñata vanish into thin air.
Built a plasma cannon for science… kinda
Would you try this? #plasmacannon #chaoticbuild #funnytok #diyexperiment #madgenius #tiktokscience #randomcreation #visualchaos #creatorenergy
– mini.katana It reminds me a lot of the potato cannons bored suburban kids used to make growing up in the 90s and early 2000’s, which were, essentially, homemade rocket launchers that turned fresh produce into a ballistic missile.
Surveillance cameras allegedly caught the three suspects inside the school media center, with prosecutors saying that Caravello-Bell took advantage of the empty halls by running through them for about 15 minutes before the cops showed up. The investigators say they recovered the water tanks and clear plastic tubing that were used to construct the plasma cannon, strongly suggesting that the kind of DIY plasma cannons you can readily find instructions for online is exactly what they used.
Both teenagers now face felony breaking and entering, conspiracy, possession of explosives on educational property, malicious use of explosives to damage property, and possession of a weapon of mass destruction.
The post Teens Arrested for Breaking Into High School With a Homemade Plasma Cannon appeared first on VICE.
