Holy Crap! Ricin Found in Vegas Hotel--While We're Here

Okay, I thought the Hep C report was scary but early tonight there was something much worse.  Just down the road from here, near the Palms and Rio, they found a substance in an Extended Stay hotel room that the first tests are confirming as Ricin (poison!) in powder form. 

Remember the Ricin that was used as an aerosol spray in the Tokyo subway?  Yeah, well some of that in powder form was found here, blocks off the main strip.

On the 11pm news they showed the area blocked off and the teams of local cops, HAZMAT, and they also said the National Guard had come in to join the investigation too.

This is scarier than when we were in Vegas the week post-Christmas after 9/11 and there were rumors that terrorists would try to take out a hotel here by hijacking a jet.  Gene and I were staying in a suite on the next to top floor of the Mirage which is basically north (if I've got my directions right) of the airport.  Anyway, normally the air traffic wouldn't fly over the Mirage but on the morning of New Year's Eve when we were getting up to head home at noon, I woke up to the sound of a jet coming right at the hotel. I'm not kidding when I say waking up to that sound was one of the scariest moments of my life before I realized that 1) it was going OVER the hotel and 2) they'd diverted the air traffic due to high winds which does happen occasionally but because I woke up from a sound sleep it took me a minute to get that squared away in my head.

Gene slept through it.  I couldn't wait to get out of town that day.

Comments

[sher]

I told you not to take that to Vegas!!!!!!!

Wait. It was Minute Rice you were going to take. Nevermind.

[Glenna]

Sher--shhhhh**! I knew I made a mistake on that one! LOL! Now they're saying that the guy whose room it was has been in the hospital for two weeks with dyspnea. Hmmmm...they think the Ricin was either a suicide attempt (which is weird that he called 9-1-1) or...something else that I can't remember now that's non-terrorist related.