Promoted from Comments: The Real Story on Thursday's Alleged Chemical/Weapons Stash

So this recent post about Thursday's "chemical house" I cribbed from The Baltimore Sun. I just passed on the Sun news (and details I garnered from various news videos.)

Apparently, there's more to the story.

To follow are a reader's comments, and Hawker's heard other similar things from close sources:

"Actually, this home is owned by a friend of mine, and the whole thing was a misunderstanding (to put it mildly).

Bottom line: They are not thieves, not running a meth lab, not trafficking firearms, and not planning treachery involving hand grenades.

The homeowner is an antiques dealer. He hadn't stolen anything, and was able to quickly and effectively clear up that misunderstanding with the HoCo police.

However, while in his house, HoCo police saw suspicious-looking parts of weapons and were obligated to report that observation to City police. The parts of weapons were related to his active-duty training as a national guardsman. The grenade was an antique and was inactive. And the chemicals found that necessitated the evacuation were just common chemicals used to refinish furniture.

This family are long-time residents of Hampden, and are good friends and good neighbors who have done nothing wrong and who pose no threat to the neighborhood whatsoever. Police have a job to do and 9 times in 10 I'm glad they're there to do it; unfortunately, in this instance, it has resulted in undue and inordinate stress on a lovely family."

So, assuming this is closer to the truth, let's all feel for Jonathan S. Hollands, because his Thursday was WAY shittier than yours. I especially feel for him because of the "oh you know what Hampendites are like!" fodder the Thursday news stories became for lots of folks.