Salem Patch Reader Comments of the Week

Here are some of our top reader comments from the past week. Click on the headlines to read the full story.

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Coyote Sighting Prompts Warning at Local Elementary School

Don Nadeau School was closed for an animal "in the area"??? I will guess the coyote was "struck" by a motor vehicle? We once had a moose walk through our high school yard (and a deer ran through the plate glass in both the back AND the front of our dept store in the center of the city) in the Berkshires. Coyotes are everywhere. Is something not being reported here? Walking sideways, foaming at the mouth?

Nancy Santos-Pacheco School was not closed. You misread this article. The police were mearly called to stand guard while school was let out at the end of the day. One should pay attention to detail.

Nancy Santos-Pacheco Also coyotes travel in packs and have attacked small children. Seeing how this was reporting in the area of and elementary school with a lot of small children I think it was a good precaution.

Explosions Heard on Bridge Street

Jared Robinson Yeah. The explosions on bridge st were wicked loud. There were like 4-5 loud ones.

KlassySalem I heard those explosions on Derby St.

Lisa Dolloff I heard 3 while walking across the Common.

Jared Robinson they happened just after midnight on Sunday/Monday.  Really large booms. not like fireworks at all.

Carolyn Costain At 12.15 am I heard exactly 5 explosions, all the way from up Tremont st . My son ran down stairs asking if I know what it was ??? last week the same kind of explosions 3 to be exact on the weekend, were hear from Tremont in Salem to Aborn st in Peabody and had Peabody police and Salem looking for the source. These explosions were one week apart, they were as loud as a transformer blowing out but to have 3 blow in one night, then 5 blow out "one right after the other" on Sunday night Nov. 18th, yet' there were not reports in either case of power outages?? It just don't make any sense at all and really needs some kind of investigating.

Don Nadeau Perhaps someone discharging a firearm at the beach or park out over the water at Collins Cove?? Some Cities are mic'd to pick up gunshots and triangulate on them. I have heard loud heavy "fireworks" in smooth succession from time to time, like someone firing rounds.

Meg Elizabeth I was right across the river in north salem, and have a perfect view of the bridge street area skyline - looked out my window (from the third floor) after the first boom, and saw nothing in the sky during the second and third booms. They were very loud; positive not fireworks.

Jenny I also heard an explosion last night around 11:30pm on Marlborough Rd. Not sure where it came from or what it was but it was pretty loud...seemed louder than a gunshot. I was outside with my dog when I heard it... scared me! Looked around for a while but didn't see anything. Wonder what it could be..

ACG Could be bottle bombs. I won't list the how to, but they are very easy to make with household ingredients. They can be quite loud. Especially at night when it is quiet. There would not be any smoke or flash with them. I used to be a police officer and we would always be chasing down these type of calls and unless you found the exact spot where the bottle blew up it is hard to find where it occurred as they leave very little evidence. I think I also saw in the police log that on one of these nights in question the PD also had a call on Bridge St. for underage drinking.

Salem's Downtown Drinking Issues Are a Two-Way Street

Michael You bring up a very good point. All the articles written about the establishments losing their liquor licenses never seem to mention any of the consequences suffered by the underage individuals. Doesn't mean none were handed out but would be nice to know if they were.

Bill Great points- there is no consequence for bad behavior for today's youth. There is no downside risk to being caught with a fake ID. Isn't that interstate fraud and a federal offense?

Leonard Nicodemo Well, I think its tough to prosecute. Yeah, it's illegal to produce a fake ID to a bartender or bouncer...but there usually isn't a police officer at the scene. The kid can bail from the bar pretty quick...and all they have to find him with is a fake name.

Delete Henry Talbot No Mass ID no entry, if out of state id ask for back up id!!!! Even if the back up is a debit card, if they have an altered out of state license I really don't think they will have a second form of id to back it up......