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Larry Walters went to the local Army-Navy surplus store
and purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. He securely
strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair and anchored the chair to the
bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium.
Lawn Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite and loaded
his pellet gun figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to
descend. Larry's plan was to lazily float up to a height of about 30 feel
above his back yard and come back down in a few hours. Things didn't quite
work out for Larry. When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his jeep
he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level off at
30 feet, but 16,000 feet. At that height he couldn't risk shooting any of the
balloons. So he stayed there drifting cold and frightened for more than 14
hours when he found himself in the primary approach corridor of LAX. A Pan Am
pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the tower and described passing a guy in
a lawn chair. With a gun! Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating
16.000 feet above the airport. LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert
and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate. The offshore breeze began to
flow and carried Larry out to sea. Right on Larry's heels was the rescue
helicopter. The helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above
Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line., with which he was
hauled back to shore.
As soon as Lawn Larry was hauled to earth, he was arrested by waiting members
of the LAPD for violating LAX airspace.
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