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'Loogie Gun' Deployed On Pennsylvania Turnpike

A tanker truck loosed a flood of sticky, gooey muck that disabled at least 150 cars and damaged many more along a 40 mile stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.


(Sticky, gooey muck disables)

A leaking valve on a tanker spilled driveway sealant over the eastbound lanes of a long stretch of the Turnpike between New Castle and the Oakmont Service Plaza on Tuesday night, Turnpike spokesman Bill Capone said.

Turnpike operations officials said 150 or more cars were disabled when the sticky goo covered their tires and wheels. Some state police and turnpike maintenance vehicles had to be towed away after getting stuck in the tar-like substance, according to the turnpike operations center.

You might be irresistibly reminded of the loogie gun from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash:

Both metacops, under their glossy black helmets and night vision goggles, are grinning. The one getting out of the mobile unit is carrying a short range chemical restraint projector - a loogie gun. Their plan worked. The loogie, when expanded in the air, was about the size of a football. Miles and miles of tiny cables like spaghetti with sticky gooey stuff that stays liquid until the loogie gun is fired. The snotty, fibrous drops of stuff wrapped all the way around her arm and forearm, lashed to the bar of the gates.
(Read more about Stephenson's loogie gun)

Via CBS

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/23/2011)

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