DTV Converter Box Confusion = Danger

[andre kesteloot]

    *Man shoots TV set; standoff ensues
    *By Jeff Lehr
    <http://ads.cluster01.oasis.zmh.zope.net/oasis/oasis/oasisc.php?s=1173&w=300&h=250&t=_top>


    jlehr at joplinglobe.com <mailto:jlehr at joplinglobe.com>

    WEBB CITY, Mo. — A man who was angry about the shut-off of his
    cable-television service shot his television set Wednesday afternoon
    and then prompted a two-hour standoff with police before leaving his
    house and surrendering.

    The standoff began about 3:30 p.m. at a house on the southwest
    corner of Ball and Daugherty streets in Webb City.


      Police Chief Carl Francis said the wife of Walter Hoover, 70,
      walked to the police station a couple of blocks away and reported
      that her husband had been drinking, was angry with a shut-off of
      his cable service, and had gotten his guns out.

      “He actually fired two rounds before she left the residence,”
      Francis said.

      Both rounds apparently were directed at and struck the couple’s
      television set, he said. He said he did not know why the couple’s
      cable service had been shut off.

      A police officer responding to the woman’s report spotted Hoover
      at the front door of the residence with a handgun. The officer
      called for assistance rather than approaching the home, and other
      Webb City police, state patrol officers, Jasper County deputies,
      and officers from the Duenweg, Duquesne, Carterville and JasCo
      Metro police departments all responded.

      Francis said Hoover went back inside the house and returned to the
      front door a short time later with what officers recognized as a
      high-powered hunting rifle.

      The police chief said Hoover’s possession of such a powerful
      weapon, coupled with information obtained from his wife that he
      had been in a similar standoff with police on a previous occasion
      in another Missouri town, led to a decision to call for help from
      the Joplin Police Department’s special weapons and tactics team,
      which happened to be assembled for a training day and available on
      short notice.

      Francis said officers were not certain at that point if anyone
      else was in the house with Hoover. His wife told them that a
      neighbor might be there.

      A perimeter was set up about a block to a block and a half in each
      direction, and the SWAT team began evacuating residents of the
      area from their homes. Francis said police were concerned that
      rounds from a high-powered rifle could penetrate the walls of
      nearby homes, and kill or injure someone.

      Efforts were made to call the house by telephone and talk to
      Hoover, he said. But officers soon learned from the telephone
      company that he had either taken his phone off the hook or had
      ripped the phone line from the wall.

      About 5:30 p.m., the SWAT team took up a position immediately
      south of the barricaded man’s home and began urging him by
      megaphone to come out unarmed and surrender.

      Around 6 p.m., Hoover did just that, and he was taken into custody
      without any shots being fired.