PA Police Use Shotguns to Deflate Runaway Blimp Stuck in Trees

Remember that runaway surveillance blimp that briefly became the next llama chase on Wednesday? The Department of Defense-owned balloon eventually came down in rural Pennsylvania Wednesday afternoon, but not before it became stuck in a wooded area. According to the Associated Press, it’s still there, and its removal has proven quite cumbersome.

Army Captain Matthew Villa told reporters most of the sensitive electronic surveillance equipment house on the balloon had already been removed. (After all, that’s some really expensive sh*t Raytheon was contracted to make for the DoD coastal monitoring program.) However, the balloon’s remnants remain stuck in the tree canopy. So how are they planning on bringing Moby Blimp down?

With 60 military members currently onsite near Muncy, PA, as well as a bunch of state troopers using shotguns to deflate what’s left of the balloon. Yes, shotguns.

Basically, a bunch of Pennsylvania state troopers went to work today really excited because their primary task was to take their standard issue shotguns, a few boxes of shells, and combine the two into a real-time version of Counter Strike. Except they’re shooting at a giant blimp instead of nefarious terrorists.

[h/t Associated Press]
[Image via screengrab]

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