For all the war movies on TV, one would wonder how Peter Flores couldn't have figured it out. Flores, a maintenance worker at a Sunland Park, New Mexico, school, came across an old gas grenade while doing the annual clean-up. Evacuate and alert the authorities? Nonsense. Instead, Flores went with pulling the O-ring. Now the building is being decontaminated and Flores is in the hospital with minor injuries.

"We have bomb drills incorporated in our school safety plan," said Agueda Mora, acting superintendent of the Gadsden Independent School District. "It says if a strange item is spotted, don't touch it." Clear enough, but Flores had a reason for pulling the O-ring.

"He admitted he pulled the O-ring because he was curious to see what would happen," explained state police Lt. Dominic Pargas. Pargas also pointed out that "if that had been a [fragmentation] grenade, it would have been real bad."

Eleven people were treated by a hazardous materials squad, several of them other workers who inhaled gas when they'd gone to see what the fuss was about.

» Scott Saxon