7 The Fringe's Death Benefits An anonymous telephone call alerted a South Florida police organization about an abandoned shotgun that the caller "had seen' sticking in the Dumpster behind a store in a shopping mall. Answering the call, an officer opened the action of the shotgun to check for shells. When that action was opened, a wire pulled the free contact onto the fixed contact, completing the circuit and detonating a bomb, killing the officer instantly and injuring his partner. After combing the rubble, forensic investigators concluded that 6 ounces of low-tech explosives were hooked to an electrical blasting cap, three 1.5-volt batteries, a plastic hair curler, two foil contacts, and connecting wire. The device was fed into the barrel of the shotgun. The dead officer's captain said, 'What in the hell kind of animal leaves a hideous death trap like that?" The captain already knew the answer: a very nasty South American drug warrior who wanted to terrorize the local police, reminding them that he was operating his drug war in their territory and that nobody was safe. Another form of modified shotgun was reported in Florida, Texas, and in New York in 1990. It was a cut-down 12-gauge shotgun modified to fit into the interior of a car