Some people are just too stupid to die

Down in Birmingham, Alabama, police stopped a car for a traffic offense. The driver had at least one outstanding warrant so he was placed under arrest.

And while they're doing the inventory search of the car prior to turning it over to the tow truck, they find a....

mortar bomb.

An explosive device was found in a Birmingham neighborhood that could have killed people, according to federal agents. Birmingham police found a World War II Japanese mortar in a car in the Bush Hills neighborhood Wednesday morning.

Police dispatched their bomb squad unit to a vehicle located at 16th Street and 8th Avenue shortly before noon. Birmingham Police Sgt. Johnny Williams said the mortar was discovered during a traffic stop. He said a car was pulled over and the driver was arrested on an outstanding warrant. Williams said a female passenger in the car then became disorderly and she was arrested.

With both occupants of the car arrested, the car had to be towed. As the vehicle was being prepared to be towed, the officers discovered the device.

to Birmingham police, it was live and in working order. Resident Agent in Charge of the ATF, Gabriel Mamock, described it as an anti-personnel device used to kill people in WWII..

(No shit? Is that what they were for? Who knew?)

"Based on the proximity of being in a small confined areas, there's a high likelihood it could have killed them," said Mamock. "There could've been danger to anyone outside close by the vehicle, if the windows were up, glass flying at a high rate of speed. So it could've been bad? It could've been bad, yes."

The mortar was safely removed and taken to an undisclosed location. The device will be detonated by the Birmingham Police Department's bomb squad. The driver said the mortar was a gift from his grandfather and he used it as a paperweight, The Birmingham News reports. No word yet on charges for the man and woman in the car.

So this mortar bomb, if live and not an inert display item, has been sitting around acting as a paperweight all these years, and then Einstein here tosses it into his trunk and just drives around with it. Presumably it'd still be in his car now, waiting for the right moment to go off, had not Nimrod gotten stopped for a traffic offense AND had a warrant for his arrest AND had not the passenger, Becky Sue Joe Bob or whatever her name really is, got all huffy about her boyfriend getting arrested. had she not yelled out something like "Y'all ain't takin' my may-un!" and proceeded to act stupidly enough to get herself locked up right alongside him, this bomb--if live--would still be rolling around the Birmingham area right now.

Some people die because they are unlucky. Others don't die because the rest of us are unlucky.