Contraband smugglers use potato guns after prisons spend millions on netting

After the S.C. Department of Corrections spent more than $8.5 million dollars installing golf course-like netting around higher-security prisons, criminals looking to smuggle contraband into state correctional institutions found a unique way to get over them. The department’s Police Services investigators suspect contraband hustlers have used potato guns to launch banned items such as drugs, tobacco and cell phones over the 50-foot-tall … Read More

South Carolina prisons install netting to prevent contraband

Prison officials in South Carolina say criminals are trying to find new ways to overcome netting that’s being put around facilities to prevent contraband from being thrown over the fences. Corrections Department spokesman Dexter Lee told The State newspaper that agency police think some of those trying to get contraband into prisons are using potato guns to try to get … Read More

US Army creates a drone-netting grenade

As last month’s grounding of flights at Gatwick Airport showed us, drones can cause a lot of problems – and they can even pose a security risk – when they’re flown in the wrong places. Engineers with the US Army are developing a countermeasure, in the form of a drone-netting grenade. The experimental 40-mm grenade was invented by Tomasz Blyskal, Richard Fong … Read More

Lindsey Vonn crashes in her final career super-G: ‘I’m too old for this’

Even as Lindsey Vonn wraps up her career as a competitive skier, she’s still fighting with the mountains. Vonn, who announced her retirement last week, crashed in the final super-G of her career at the world championships on Tuesday. Just 30 seconds into her run, she straddled a gate while she was airborne and went tumbling into the plastic netting on … Read More

Increased salmon farm protection leads to drop in seal culls

A salmon producer has reported seeing a reduction in seal culling after introducing new nets to keep them away from fish. Fish farms are licensed to kill the animals to prevent them from attacking and eating salmon in the farm cages. Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) said the number of seals culled last year was 31% down on the year before. … Read More

Brevard Zoo considers netting, safety measures before reopening rhino encounter

Brevard Zoo officials are still working with Florida wildlife officials to improve the barrier safety at the hands-on rhinoceros encounter after a toddler stumbled through earlier this month and was seriously injured. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released its final report Wednesday of the Jan. 1 incident after interviewing the family involved, zookeepers, medical staffers and zoo officials. The 21-month-old girl was with … Read More