The Null Device

Mobile phones as projectiles

The street finds its own uses for obsolete mobile phones, it seems. Football hooligans in the UK are getting around police weapon searches by throwing mobile phones instead. While knives and other traditional hooligan weapons are confiscated on entry to stadiums, football fans are allowed to bring in mobile phones, so the hooligans bring a few extra to lob at the other side. The extra phones are apparently traded around some football clubs. I wonder whether they leave them as is or hollow them out and fill them with ballast of some sort to do more damage.

Meanwhile, a man in Sweden has been arrested after firing arrows with attached mobile phones into a prison yard. Mobile phones have been used to plan three prison escapes in Sweden in recent months.

There are 2 comments on "Mobile phones as projectiles":

Posted by: dj http://deej.bah.id.au Tue Nov 30 01:07:10 2004

Do they only use 'bricks', or do they lob the new tiny ones as well?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org/ Tue Nov 30 01:39:38 2004

Not sure. I imagine the bricks would be better suited to the job, though one could fit more of the tiny ones in the pockets of one's Burberry shellsuit. Though anything more than a few would start to look suspicious.