[5/9/2002] - Put on a happy face
 

http://a799.ms.akamai.net/3/799/388/...ws/1478401.gif

He looks like the average college kid from the Midwest,” Washoe County Sheriff Dennis Balaam told the Associated Press.But a second side of Helder is beginning to emerge in the wake of his arrest — that of a criminal given to both bizarre behavior and cold-blooded indifference. Thursday Helder told officers after his arrest that he was attempting to sketch a “happy face” on the map with the bombs that he planted in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.
“He seemed kind of carefree or amused about what was going on, ” Bjerke told the network.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/747431.asp?pne=msn&cp1=1

(I'll just edit your title to put the right date in)

Are colorado and texas the "eyes", or are there a lot of missing bombs yet to be found?

He didn't get to finish. The circles are the eyes, I think, and the other two are forming the mouth. He simply failed miserably at accomplishing his goal.

thanks.. just got a new laptop at work and it was set wrong.. never bothered to look...

Anyone else think of Fight Club when they heard this?

Looks to me like Nebraska and Iowa are the eyes, Colorado and Texas are part of the smile.

Not only did he fail miserably, what the hell was he doing in Nevada? Ears? Starting an outline of the entire head?

Another thing... everyone would have realized what he was doing halfway through the smile. The rest of it would have not only been anticlimactic, but every law enforcement agency in those last coupla states would have been on full alert.

A project like this takes planning, coordination, and patience. You can't just take off and make a smiley face across the country. He could have had accomplices in the other states, or used bombs on a timer so they all went off at once.

Kids these days.

Running and hiding, would be my guess.

wow
 

I'm sorry, but I think it's pretty damn funny that he went for it.

I mean, terrorism sucks (I'm an American, I know) and there is no excuse for it.

But a giant HAPPY FACE AS BIG AS THE COUNTRY????

Holy crap!

He loaded up the car and took off with a road map and started it! The eyes came out great!

Of course as has already been mentioned, once they saw the pattern they'd have been waiting for him where the tongue would have been.

I think that once the media coverage became huge, he decided to cool it for a while and head out to Tahoe or SF.

I also note this sinister fact: The media hasn't been giving much airplay to the happy face artwork, just to the guy. They are downplaying the absolute audacity of his stunt by just calling him a terrorist. Interesting.

Oh, and one more thing...just because he's in jail doesn't mean that someone else won't step up and try to finish the drawing for him.