A mysterious package, wrapped in paper stamped with skeletons and a swastika, is dropped outside the office of a Jewish lawyer in Glen Burnie. His secretary becomes alarmed and calls the police.
Eight Anne Arundel County police officers, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a bomb technician from the state fire marshal's office, county firefighters and two trucks from the State Highway Administration pick up the package and rush it through downtown Glen Burnie to Saw Mill Creek Park, where a technician fires into the parcel trying to detonate it.
Nothing happens.
Police discover inside a spent shotgun shell and a puzzle called, "How to Kill a Lawyer."
Who was responsible for this sick joke?
A Klansman? A skin head? An outraged client trying to exact revenge on his counselor?
Nope. Try the lawyer's brother and sisters, who had cooked up the scheme as a joke during the Thanksgiving holiday.
We don't know what kind of relationship lawyer Dennis Weisberg has with his siblings, but it is inconceivable how they could have thought that their prank was funny. Could it be that the brother and sisters didn't hear about the New Jersey advertising executive who was killed earlier this month when he unwittingly opened a package containing a bomb?
Did they not know of the hate crimes that had been reported in Anne Arundel County during the past few months?
The Ku Klux Klan marched on the state capital in Annapolis in October, then racist graffiti was sprayed on an Edgewater hair salon owned by a black woman and swastikas were painted on an Annapolis synagogue.
Mr. Weisberg told The Sun that his brother and sisters are remorseful to the point of being humiliated. "I guess there's no such thing as criminal stupidity, but I'd like to see them charged with that," Mr. Weisberg said.
Unfortunately, the state's attorney's office hasn't come up with any charges that can be placed against the foolish pranksters.
We're not advocating jail sentences; a heavy dose of community service might be appropriate. At the least, the fun-loving siblings ought to reimburse the taxpayers for wasting the time of so many public safety officials who had to be called out to deal with their dreadfully misguided joke.