"Ohmigod," Adams said as she recalled police breaking down her door and flashing the search warrant. "I just kept saying to them, 'you've got the wrong house.' "
 
Roehl said the drug task force was acting on a tip from a subcontractor for CenterPoint Energy, who had been in the home Friday to install a hot water heater.
 
"He got hit with a chemical smell that he said made him light headed, feel kind of nauseous," Roehl said.
 
The smell was vinegar, and maybe pickling lime, which were clearly marked in a bathroom Mr. Adams uses to mix chemicals for his salt water fish tank.
 
"I said, 'I call it his laboratory for his fish tanks,' " Mrs. Adams said, recalling her conversation with the CenterPoint technician. "I'm looking at the fish tank talking to this guy."
 
Police say there was no extended investigation, just an interview with the subcontractor.

There is the possibility that in the future people may be identifiable by their purchasing habits. Granted the point-of-sale data collected by computers would need to be immense yet eventually pattern-recognition software may some day be able to provide authorities with perhaps 100 of the best possible "hits" on people matching your known buying habits. When — if ever — that becomes a reality, you can be sure you won't know about it until it's shown on cable television. By that time the technology will have been in use for years and you may end up on a list of possible matching a purchase profile.

How to Disappear in America Without a Trace [skeptictank via Your Daily Awesome]
(Photo: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³)

Apparently, "passers-by called police after finding a pool of a flabby red, orange and green substance on the roadside" outside of Halle. A wide area was immediately cordoned off and experts wearing E.T. like chemical warfare suits with nuclear symbols emblazoned on the back were brought into the examine the mess.

Finally, after prodding the quivering, jelly-like mass with many high-tech instruments worth hundreds of thousands of euros and scowling contemplatively at the meaningless results, one of the biochemists had a swell idea. "Hey! Why don't we just taste it?"

And, of course, it was Jell-O, dumped by a local groom after a wedding party. Which is a biochemical hazard in and of itself.

Leftover jelly triggers German security alert [Reuters]

So what's going on with everyone's favorite pedophile paranoia site, Defendmystreet.com?

Well, unfortunately, Defendmystreet.com hasn't yet been shut down. They aren't doing anything illegal, per se, though it's extremely clear that they are an email harvesting scam. But there's been a flurry of activity in the Denver press about the site, all of which has been extremely negative.

Florian McCann's still silent, although his reason for silence is absolutely hysterical.

"McCann did not want to talk on camera with 7NEWS for fear of retribution from sex offenders."

Right. God forbid a sex offender know where you live, McCann. It's only kosher the other way around.

His lawyer claims that "the only people who could possibly be upset about what he's doing is sex offenders." Well, okay, that does explain why Ben's got a bug up his ass about it. But me? I'm plenty pissed too.

Thanks, AcitellaM!

Previously: Defend My Steet Stories on Consumerist

McCann initially promoted his aeration services with flyers bearing the logos of the Colorado State University's extension service and Denver Water. He had permission from neither to use their logos.

"Customers Complain About Lawn Aeration Company" [TheDenverChannel]
"Check Out Lawn Aeration Companies Before You Hire" [TheDenverChannel]
BBB report.
Negative CitySearch review.

Previously: Colorado Pedophile Paranoia Site Probed

McCann's definition of neighbor must be very broad, as Douglas County estimates he has distributed over 100,000 flyers. These flyers cropped up in Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree and Acres Green, with Parker estimated as the next town.

The state Sex Offender groups have hundreds of calls from "scared and confused" people wanting to know where the supposed "offender" is living. A further complication is that DefendMyStreet.com's redirect skips over the main warning page on the Colorado sex offender registry. This page helps inform users how the site works and what they should expect from using it.

The CPDS would like the man to stop but they don't seem to have any legal recourse. There's no law against distributing flyers and setting up a website which redirects to another.

They have, however, been giving complainants McCann's phone number.

On Monday, Brian complained about pamphleteers infiltrating his Highlands Ranch, CO neighborhood, pasting flyers for a strange sex-offender shell site that seemed to be designed to capture paranoid people's zip codes and email addresses.

We passed on Brian's email address after the department rep wrote, "This is on my list of ToDo's for today. Might you have any more information or assistance with contacting the reporter of this information?"

You know you've hit the big time when you're on the CDPS's ToDo list!

This morning a crew of pamphleteers hit my neighbhorhood (I live in subrbia Highlands Ranch outside of Denver) and stuck little notices to everyone's door.

The notice read: "ATTENTION NEIGHBORS: A Sex Offender Moved Into This Area! We are asking everyone to become aware. Find out who they are and what their address is.@ www.defendmystreet.com."

I heard all of my neighbors talking about it and quickly hopped to the site
where I discovered a field for my zipcode and email address. I entered both (fake) and it just passed me on to the official, and totally free, state run sex offender's list with the search results for my zip code.

I did some brief digging and found out that the site was registered on Sept.
4 by Domains By Proxy, a company that registers site names for other people
for privacy reasons. I've also called the local sheriff's office, which promises to investigate.

Besides the obvious fear-mongering, I can't figure out what this is all
about. There has to be cheaper ways to build email lists.

Frankly, I find it absurd that sex-offenders (even when wrongfully convicted) can never serve out their sentence for the crime, especially with the lack of murderer or violent criminal tracking lists. But I assume this is market research for some sort of paid anti-pedophile service, which is as sleazy as it goes. Anyone else run into this? Got any information?

Speaking of ridiculous product bans, chemistry sets and model rockets for kids are probably the next thing to go.

United Nuclear is imploring help fighting a CPSC criminal action against them for selling chemicals to unlicensed hobbyists... chemicals that could be used against the heartland of America in a terrorist attack! Or to teach a kid the wonders of science. Same thing!

The United States CPSC has initiated criminal legal action against us and other chemical suppliers. In short, the CPSC would like to ban the public from all access to chemicals. This would mean an end to hobbies such as model rocketry, pyrotechnics and of course chemistry. One by one, our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us - this action must be stopped now.

They're asking for donations to fight the charges, from $25 to $1000. We're with them: safety paranoia goes too far when anything that can be dangerous is criminal. Especially when what they are trying to outlaw is a ten year old building a battery for a science fair, or fondly remembering constructing a model rocket in the backyard with his dad one Halcyon summer weekend.

United Nuclear Legal Action Page