Theodore Hollot

A lawyer for freshman Theodore Hollot, a 19-year-old Eagle Scout from Pennsylvania, says a bomb scare on the Georgia Tech campus was the result of a botched experiment he had observed in chemistry class. The consequences have resulted in a grand jury indictment.

Sandra Michaels, a lawyer for Hollot, who was accused of making bottle bombs, told the media he was only trying to duplicate an experiment demonstrated in class using carbonation resulting from a mixture of dry ice and water to cause a plastic drink bottle to explode.

The experiment went awry in ways Hollot surely never imagined — two residence halls were evacuated, the Atlanta Police Department bomb squad was called, police arrested him and he has been indicted by a grand jury.

Michaels said Hollot, an engineering student, observed the experiment in class on Friday, Oct. 7. Later that day, he saw dry ice for sale at a grocery store and impulsively decided to recreate the experiment. That night in his room at Glenn residence hall, he tried mixing combinations of dry ice and water in a dozen plastic bottles. He dropped them out his second-floor window to the lawn below and listened for them to pop. At least three bottles failed to explode.

On Oct. 10, while Hollot was in class, a Georgia Tech facilities worker picked up one of the bottles between the Glenn and Cloudman residence halls and it burst in his hand. The worker, Stanley Goss, was taken to a medical clinic for evaluation but suffered no obvious injuries. Campus police were immediately notified and 100 students from the two residence halls were evacuated. The Atlanta police bomb squad found two similar bottles in the same area and popped them. They initially called the incident a "terrorist act."

Hollot later told a resident hall adviser that he believed he was responsible for the campus scare. They went to the dean, then to campus police and to Atlanta police, who charged him with three felonies — possession and manufacture of an explosive device, aggravated assault and aggravated battery — and a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct. He spent the night in the Fulton County jail was released on $7,000 bond.

Georgia Tech gave Hollot an interim suspension, which was later lifted, although he is not allowed to live on campus.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Hollot in the incident.

"It was a thoughtless act, but there was no malicious intent," Michaels said. "He had no idea that the bottle would expand to the point that it broke as it did."

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