The Mythbusters busted up a California neighbourhood yesterday evening when an errant cannonball crashed through a minivan and a house.
The Mythbusters crew had themselves a close call as they were filming their latest stunt at a California bomb range.
Producers for the Discovery Channel TV show were firing a cannon, which they had built themselves, at the range, which is located near the Santa Rita Jail in the city of Dublin.
J.D. Nelson, a sheriff’s department spokesman and a consultant for the show, told the Contra Costa Times that the cannon had been used more than 50 times prior and there had been no problems.
The sheriff also told the paper that the stunt intended that the cannonball to go through several water-filled barrels and blasting through a concrete wall.
Instead, the ball missed its mark, firing past the barrels and through the wall before taking a bad hop and going airborne, bouncing toward a home on Cassata Place – 700 feet away.
But the damage was not yet done as the cannon ball crashed through the house on one side and exited through another.
The occupants of the home were sleeping at the time, and were not hurt.
The cannonball then plummeted into the minivan, breaking one of its windows and finally coming to a stop inside.
Prior to the incident, the group’s robotic and electrical guru, Grant Imahara tweeted: “Today we’re working with heavy artillery.”
The statement was re-tweeted by the show’s official Twitter account, but both posts were later removed when news of the incident came to light.
The owner of the minivan, Jasbir Gill, is thanking his lucky stars that he and his children came out of the incident alive – they had been in the vehicle moments earlier.
Jasbir Gill told the Contra Costa Times: “It’s scary. I was in the van five minutes before this happened.”
The bomb range has been shut down as authorities investigate the incident and try to determine what exactly went wrong.
Jasbir Gill told Contra Costa Times that he wants producers of the show, which has been on the air since 2003, to pay for his van and the other damage the cannonball caused.
No Dublin residents, or anyone on the Mythbusters crew, were injured in the incident.
The Mythbusters show follows the exploits of special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use their knowledge to prove or disprove different hard-to-believe aspects of films, TV, the internet and other rumours.
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