Iowa woman killed at gender reveal party

[47of74]

Horrible

Quote

A 56-year-old Iowa woman was killed by debris from an explosion at a gender reveal party Saturday, where a pipe bomb was "inadvertently" created, authorities said.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office on Monday identified the victim as Pamela Kreimeyer. She was killed at the party in Knoxville, about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines.

The sheriff's office said members of the Kreimeyer family were experimenting with different types of explosive material on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to record a gender reveal that could be posted on social media.

On Saturday afternoon, Kreimeyer and five other family members, including the expectant mother, gathered and placed gunpowder in the bottom of a homemade stand that was welded to a metal base plate, according to the sheriff's office.

It would’ve been bad enough if this had just been a horrible accident, but for something this fucking stupid.  God. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

All because they wanted to post it on social media. 

[Giraffe]

Holy shit! This stuff needs to stop!! This person died at a sex reveal party. What a senseless tragedy. 

[TheOneAndOnly]

I guess the lesson to take from this story is that if your festivities involve explosions, be careful.  (didn't most of us learn that by high school though?)

[Kailash]

People can be so ignorant. Why would anyone think it was a good idea to experiment with explosives?! 

[Screamapillar]

Wow. At any point did these people realize that they were creating a pipe bomb?

It's horrible that it's so easy for people to get access to the materials to create something like that.

[EmmieJ]

The stupidity, it burns (and in this case, kills).  Just have cupcakes with blue or pink icing, or colored balloons.  Or how about you just skip the stupid sex reveal altogether? 

[PopRox]

I've always thought sex reveal parties were dumb and unnecessary*, but now they're deadly on top of that. If you MUST to a reveal for social media... post a picture of pink or blue booties/layette.  You don't have the hassle of planning a party, your friends don't have to take time of their weekend to go to your party, and best of all? NOBODY DIES.

*when a coworker told me she has having a "gender reveal party," my first thought was "Is this A Thing now?PLEASE tell me this isn't A Thing now."

That was 8 years ago. >_<

[Giraffe]

6 minutes ago, PopRox said:

*when a coworker told me she has having a "gender reveal party," my first thought was "Is this A Thing now?PLEASE tell me this isn't A Thing now."

That was 8 years ago. >_<

I’m grateful I found out it was a thing prior to being invited to one because I’m certain I would’ve burst out laughing knowing it was a joke. 

[HarryPotterFan]

I was just coming here to post this. People will do anything to get social media attention. They do dumbass things just for likes, damn the consequences. I can’t imagine how traumatizing this must be for this woman’s family, party guests, and the expectant mother.

Don't forget that in 2017 some idiots in Arizona cause a wildfire ar a gender reveal, burning almost 47,000 acres of land. Fucking idiots.

[unsafetydancer]

How did these people even get their hands on explosives? This is crazy.

[HarryPotterFan]

1 minute ago, unsafetydancer said:

How did these people even get their hands on explosives? This is crazy.

It’s scary easy in some parts of the US. Months ago I was in Texas and my friends needed to go to a sporting goods store to pick something up. I was shocked to see hunting rifles sitting out on shelves. Easy as buying a ball.

[unsafetydancer]

7 minutes ago, HarryPotterFan said:

It’s scary easy in some parts of the US. Months ago I was in Texas and my friends needed to go to a sporting goods store to pick something up. I was shocked to see hunting rifles sitting out on shelves. Easy as buying a ball.

Ah OK. I knew about the guns being easy to get hold of but I somehow imagined that explosives might be harder to source without a sensible reason. Please tell me they at least age check someone who wants to buy explosives like we do with fireworks here.

[Coconut Flan]

My youth with my father comes out at times like this.  People ask how did they buy explosives and my thought was it was just gunpowder.  Gunpowder is easily obtainable.  Possibly far too easily obtainable.  My father used to load his own bullets and shells.  He was always talking about it and getting me to help him.  The only requirement at that time to buy any of the supplies was to be over 18 and have some kind of ID.  My mother would take young me into the store, I would rattle off the order, and she would show ID and pay.  No one ever questioned it.  I see gunpowder is now sold online.

Real (TNT, C4, dynamite) explosives are harder to obtain and one needs a license.

Edited October 28, 2019 by Coconut Flan

[HarryPotterFan]

5 minutes ago, unsafetydancer said:

Ah OK. I knew about the guns being easy to get hold of but I somehow imagined that explosives might be harder to source without a sensible reason. Please tell me they at least age check someone who wants to buy explosives like we do with fireworks here.

I didn’t look closely at that section of the store, I only walked by, but I imagine gun power and such were easily accessible as well.

4 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

My youth with my father comes out at times like this.  People ask how did they buy explosives and my thought was it was just gunpowder.  Gunpowder is easily obtainable.  Possibly far too easily obtainable.  My father used to load his own bullets and shells.  He was always talking about it and getting me to help him.  The only requirement at that time to buy any of the supplies was to be over 18 and have some kind of ID.  My mother would take young me into the store, I would rattle off the order, and she would show ID and pay.  No one ever questioned it.  I see gunpowder is now sold online.

It doesn’t surprise me it’s sold online. Scary, though 

[Themanda Duggar]

On the bright side, Mrs Kreimeyer  is now in the running for a Darwin Award.

[FluffySnowball]

For so many people, it seems the most important reason to have a party isn’t to meet up, be with people they love and make beautiful memories and lasting connections, but to try to get the perfect video or photo.

At the end of the day, who looks back and thinks, great, I got many likes? It doesn’t matter in the long run. And this death is so tragic of course! 

[TuringMachine]

How on earth did they think that was safe? I can't imagine anyone there was an expert with explosives but didn't realize they were making a pipe bomb, so that means these people were being crazily cavalier with dangerous stuff they didn't understand.

[Kailash]

5 hours ago, Themanda Duggar said:

On the bright side, Mrs Kreimeyer  is now in the running for a Darwin Award.

Mrs. Kreimeyer was a wife, mother and grandmother. I doubt there’s a bright side to this for her friends and family .

[Aine]

40 minutes ago, Kailash said:

5 hours ago, Themanda Duggar said:

On the bright side, Mrs Kreimeyer  is now in the running for a Darwin Award.

Mrs. Kreimeyer was a wife, mother and grandmother. I doubt there’s a bright side to this for her friends and family .

Not to mention that it wasn't her gender reveal party. It was no doubt for a soon to be born grandchild and the article said there were 5 other adults involved. I doubt she was the driving force behind any of it. She was probably just excited about a new grandbaby and going along with what the expectant parents wanted, and it cost her her life. 

I can't imagine the grief and regret the other adults are experiencing right now, especially the expectant mother. It's a tough way to learn how much something like a gender reveal or a video for social media really doesn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things.

People do plenty of unnecessarily dumb and potentially dangerous stuff regularly and don't lose their life or kill anyone else in the process. It doesn't excuse their lack of caution but I tend to think most of us can think back to something we did that in retrospect could have ended very badly and was irresponsible but there were no consequences so it just becomes one of those "I can't believe I did this..." or "It's a miracle (insert terrible consequence) didn't happen..." stories. I think the likelihood of having those stories drastically rises if one includes witnessing someone else do something stupid. It's even more difficult sometimes when you're part of a group of people you trust and love and there is some amount of group excitement involved for anyone in the group to recognize in the moment that something is a terrible idea (and even harder to speak up).

The phenomenon to conform, especially when part of a group, is Psychology 101. The vast majority of humans succumb to it in certain situations. I doubt anyone in that family would have done something so dangerous on their own.

I know these are Wikipedia articles but most cognitive/social psych articles on Wikipedia are very balanced, well reviewed, and have solid and relevant citations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupshift

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwagon_effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence

 

 

[dripcurl]

11 hours ago, Themanda Duggar said:

On the bright side, Mrs Kreimeyer  is now in the running for a Darwin Award.

1) Even if she made the (accidental) bomb all on her lonesome, which from what we know - she did not, why would that somehow be a “bright side”? 2) There is a good chance she did not know what the bomb was 3) She was 45 feet away, so assuming she thought it was just a harmless smoke bomb, which was most likely the case, that is still a decently safe distance for that, so I don’t think there was anything making her thinking less fit. This is a real woman, who died a real death, who did not deserve what happened to her at all. 

[47of74]

And now it's dumb fuck see, dumb fuck do...

Quote

Central Iowa authorities responded Sunday to an explosion at a gender reveal celebration just one day after an Iowa grandmother was killed at a similar celebration. 

Waukee fire and police department responded to a report of an explosion about 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the 32000 block of Ute Avenue in rural Dallas County, according to a news release from city officials. 

"Upon arrival, personnel spoke to the owners of the property and confirmed that there was an explosion as a result of a gender reveal announcement," the release states. "A commercially available gender reveal kit was found to be the cause of the explosion."

No injuries were reported. A complaint of a broken window because of the incident has not been substantiated, the release says.

Not cool.  My sister, brother in law, and the Marvel Man live in Waukee.

[louisa05]

What's wrong with just doing the cake thing? Or I've seen popping balloons with pink or blue confetti in them. 

Or, you know, you don't need to do it in the first place. 

The ones I've seen photos of on my social media were all done with harmless things--like cake or balloons. But all of them have looked like a grand party and all included a pile of gifts. So it's baby shower part 1. It seems like this generation is creating a lot of events to get gifts. My nephew and his new wife had an amazingly sparse wedding registry for two people just out of college with massive student loan debt and nothing to their names. They explained that they want most of their "new stuff" to match the house they hope to buy in a year or two, so they are saving those things for their "housewarming registry"--at which time, we'll be expected to buy, basically, another wedding style gift. 

And I'm guessing there will be gender reveal parties, too, because nephew loves a good social media photo or video op......

[Glasgowghirl]

5 hours ago, louisa05 said:

What's wrong with just doing the cake thing? Or I've seen popping balloons with pink or blue confetti in them. 

Or, you know, you don't need to do it in the first place. 

The ones I've seen photos of on my social media were all done with harmless things--like cake or balloons. But all of them have looked like a grand party and all included a pile of gifts. So it's baby shower part 1. It seems like this generation is creating a lot of events to get gifts. My nephew and his new wife had an amazingly sparse wedding registry for two people just out of college with massive student loan debt and nothing to their names. They explained that they want most of their "new stuff" to match the house they hope to buy in a year or two, so they are saving those things for their "housewarming registry"--at which time, we'll be expected to buy, basically, another wedding style gift. 

And I'm guessing there will be gender reveal parties, too, because nephew loves a good social media photo or video op......

Exactly what I was thinking, not a massive fan of balloons and the impact they have on the environment but they are a lot better than explosives and putting people in danger. 

[louisa05]

15 minutes ago, Glasgowghirl said:

Exactly what I was thinking, not a massive fan of balloons and the impact they have on the environment but they are a lot better than explosives and putting people in danger. 

Well, popping them and cleaning it up is not so problematic as other issues with balloons.