"Bomb" scare at Georgia Tech

Campus Safe After Bomb Scare, Explosives Found Near Tech Dorms
In response to Titus' Post

Yesterday morning (10/9/05), some trash "explodes" on Tech campus, the person who detonated it isn't hurt, the adjacent dorms are evacuated and the bomb squad called. 11alive mentions "chemicals in plastic bottles", the Georgia Tech article provides no similar information.

The explosives were made up of chemicals placed inside plastic bottles and could have seriously injured someone, officials said.

"Chemicals placed inside plastic bottles" sounds a lot like water and dry ice in soda bottles, which is a teenage prank that kids might learn on the Internet. The water melts the dry ice (solid CO2), and the expansion is timed by the amount of water and dry ice. The contraption makes a really loud bang when the plastic bottle explodes on its own, which were probably supposed to be timed for early morning.

I think that its absurd to call this a "terrorist threat". Now that certain fireworks are legal in GA, what is a "bomb"? Do otherwise legal devices become bombs simply by delaying their detonation? If I am correct in identifying the type of threat, the potential damage of these three "explosive" devices would be limited to noise and plastic shrapnel, which would be contained by the plastic bags the devices were covered in. Are the police taking this a bit far by claiming it to be an act of terrorism? From 11lalive again:

Under Georgia state law, a terroristic act is described as the release of a 'hazardous substance,' specifically for 'the purpose of causing the evacuation of a building' with 'reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror.'

I doubt that these could be classified as a "hazardous substance", they might get away with saying it was "for the purpose of causing the evacuation of a building", and I guess if it were true that the intention was to evacuate a building, they may have had a disregard for "causing such terror". If these are true, they would be equally true of anyone firing a gun or detonating fireworks, if they thought it might cause a building to evacuate.

They go on to quote Major Moss as saying,

It will be a joint investigation between the Atlanta Police Department, the Georgia Tech Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Every possible lead will be followed.

Seriously... there are terrorists to be afraid of, but water and dry ice isn't what they're using.