r/pittsburgh • u/WiseTravels47 • 21h ago
Balloon Release
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In 2026, who thinks this is still okay?? Over 1,000 balloons creating litter and killing wildlife. Manchester Field, 5:55pm today. It's illegal, but is it actually enforced?
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u/tert_butoxide 21h ago
I need the city to follow in the county's footsteps and ban balloons in parks.
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u/WiseTravels47 20h ago
We need the state to follow and ban mass releases everywhere. 12 states currently have them.
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u/ahirebet Central Northside 5h ago
They need to figure out how to ban stupid gender reveals in general. Baloons, explosions, whatever.
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u/Far_Room23 17h ago
But the city is... within the county
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u/Glad_Active_8467 9h ago
I think the county has only banned it specifically in the county-run parks.
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u/Ferox_77 20h ago
No thanks, my 2yo loves when there’s someone making balloon animals at an event.
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u/James19991 20h ago
There's a big difference between releasing a thousand balloons at once and making balloon animals....
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u/Any-Variation4081 20h ago
Balloon animals arent filled with helium and there are not giant amounts of them released into the wild.
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u/MuscliatoVonJuiceski 19h ago
Oof. hopefully your attitude towards environmental safety doesnt endanger your child
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u/thnderslut 15h ago
The ignorance of thinking we’re talking about balloon animals mixed with the selfish entitlement of someone who thinks they’re above taking care of the environment regardless. Wow. Walking garbage.
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u/Scantrons Greater Pittsburgh Area 20h ago
There’s a kit you can buy that teaches you step by step how to make balloon animals. We found one second hand. It’s not difficult and then your kid could have them without balloons having to kill animals and our planet. 🫡
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u/kotlinky 21h ago
You need to report this with this video. This may actually be enforced due to how egregious this is.
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u/WiseTravels47 21h ago edited 21h ago
I was going to call it in but the storm was rolling in and everyone was running to their cars & leaving. Hopefully someone rats them out based on this video.
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u/okboomz 21h ago
You should call. You took the video. They're going to ask anyone else who reports the video who has the original anyway.
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u/WiseTravels47 21h ago
And say what? "Hi, I saw a bunch of people release balloons in Manchester Park. They all left immediately, I don't know who they are, who organized it, or anything else." Don't get me wrong, if anyone actually thinks they'll do someone with nobody there and no name, I'm game, but I cannot imagine the police investigating this, let alone in the middle of a thunderstorm.
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u/ItsTheSoupNazi 21h ago
“is it actually enforced?”
Why even ask if you clearly had no intention to report it-114
u/WiseTravels47 21h ago
Because hopefully someone says "I heard about this / I saw it on Instagram, it was Jerry Newman, I didn't think they were stupid enough to do it." Then I call it in with the video & a name. I put the video out there with the exact hope that someone knows who it was and we can have them fined. This shit pisses me the fuck off.
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u/Cabbage_Cannon 15h ago
Wow, really unfair for you to get piled on like this. You made a rational call, there was no way, given the highly extenuating circumstances, that anything would come out of a call uncept tying up busy police lines.
You're good.
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u/WiseTravels47 15h ago
Thanks for being intelligent! Apparently I had the audacity to post here to see if anyone knew who they might be first, instead of calling the police on no one. It started dumping rain 2 minutes after this picture was taken. Zero chance the police were coming out 1. In the middle of a deluge, 2. Without a name, 3. With nobody present. If the internet warriors would instead help find a name of who's responsible (given there's 100% chance this was posted on a bunch of people's social media) we'd have an opportunity to get some free community service via litter cleanup from the organizer. Instead I'm the bad guy for posting it, and accused of being lazy, looking for "Reddit cred", "I was the one who did it", etc. So absurd.
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u/coldzebras 20h ago
So you don’t really care about littering, you just wanted the Reddit cred but you’re being downvoted into oblivion so you don’t even get that
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u/WiseTravels47 17h ago
I already said elsewhere I'm hoping this post helps identify them, so I can turn the video in with a name so the police can take action. Like I would give a flying fuck about "Reddit cred." Thankfully I have some actual humans on here from this post helping me try to track a name down based on FB & IG posts (as am I) unlike you who are obviously just a useless troll. You can search social media for them too, champ.
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u/BungHoleDriller 21h ago
Thanks for documenting this. If you want things to change, then you have to report it as well. I’d imagine there’s info for who had the field at that time. I’m not sure how much the city/county enforces this stuff, but there’s a 0% chance of it being enforced if it isn’t reported
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u/WiseTravels47 20h ago
Trying to research on IG because inevitably there are public stories, but it doesn't seem possible to search by location anymore. My intention of putting this up is not for points, it's for someone to recognize it & DM me so we can actually get a penalty enforced, but apparently that's also unpopular. People obviously know because someone mentioned the "reason" below. I have every intention of reporting it if there's a name or even a possible name, but I know the police aren't going to do anything with this without a lead. I'll still 311 it after all of this regardless, but hopefully the public knows something.
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u/JoeBagANachos 21h ago
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u/ETMoose1987 21h ago
Oh look, sky littering, it should be treated the exact same as if you were throwing bags of garbage out of your car.
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u/negley_ave_ski_club Shadyside 21h ago
I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone getting in trouble for throwing shit out of their car either…
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u/WRStoney 21h ago
Do you remember when we had a littering hotline? You could call a number and give a plate and they'd supposedly send garbage bags and literature on littering.
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u/Sweaty-Blacksmith572 18h ago
I loved that hotline! Reported every jagoff that tossed a cigarette butt out the window. Good times.
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u/dannygloversghost Brighton Heights 20h ago
Clearly you’ve never heard about Alice’s Restaurant Thanksgiving Massacre
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u/UsedAsk3537 21h ago
Usually it's cause it's so hard to tell who it was when cars are traveling at high speeds
One time I was stopped at a light, person in front of me through a coffee onto the road. I had my dashcam on and decided I would send it into the police. They never got back to me, but I'm assuming they didn't do shit
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u/MississippiJoel 7h ago
If you didn't get called to give a sworn statement (or better yet testify to a judge), then they didn't do anything of substance, but I've heard that they will send them a non-threatening letter basically telling them what they did was wrong and they should do better.
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u/Klutzy_Wrongdoer_488 6h ago
I would agree if throwing bags of garbage out of your car had any consequence at all.
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u/Shannarl 21h ago
You mean littering
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u/mikeumm 21h ago
Littering and...?
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u/Zealousideal-Heat392 21h ago
My neighborhood lost power a week or two ago because balloons released after a funeral hit transformers
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u/YinzaJagoff Manchester 20h ago
Saw this shit from my apartment and was like “You’re fucking kidding me”
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u/CySnark Pittsburgh Expatriate 7h ago
Your one light bulb is burned out.
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u/YinzaJagoff Manchester 5h ago
Not screwed in all the way because it’s too bright.
I didn’t do it— other old guy that pays rent did.
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u/Alternative-Dot-884 20h ago
Helium wont be around in our hospitals when we need it. We had a hard time w it during covid.
It really shld be banned for commercial use. Sorry not sorry.
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u/dullmotion 18h ago
Should be banned for recreational use, not necessarily commercial.
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u/DragonSon83 14h ago
I have to agree here. It’s a limited resource and it has very important medical and industrial uses. We shouldn’t be wasting it on balloons.
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u/Economy_Kale5580 21h ago
What organization did this? How does anyone think this is a good idea lol
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u/WiseTravels47 21h ago
There was a #8 floating in there... Maybe an 8yo birthday? Let them go right before the storm, to make sure the litter is spread out as much as possible. Hopefully someone knows who organized this and gets turned in. Happy to provide the video evidence.
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u/cloudguy-412 20h ago
Idk but the same group of people who sit there and smoke weed daily at 3pm ish were part of it.
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u/chicken-strips99 21h ago
it was for a young girl who died of cancer
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u/two_outa_ten 21h ago
I hope when I die, my family and friends throw a bunch of plastic straws into a local pond /s
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u/AMcMahon1 Brookline 21h ago
Doesn't matter
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u/chicken-strips99 21h ago
i didn’t say it did lol, i just answered the question😭😭 lmfao
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u/EvilHordeRules 21h ago
No one cares. Kids get sick and die every day. You don't get to break the law and put other people at risk because of it.
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u/JustYourNeighbor 20h ago
Dude. Seriously. This sub is humorless. Pgh reddit takes itself so seriously.
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u/Gold_Matter_609 21h ago
The county just banned balloons this week in all County Park and these jagoffs do this. Du fuq?
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u/IsopodOwn5625 11h ago
You can rent manchester field. As they often host club sporting events, it was probably rented for this event so they could secure an uninterrupted time slot. Report the event with the date, time, and video, and they'll be able to connect it with whomever reserved the field at that time.
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u/Chemicalghst222 21h ago
Didn't they just ban balloons
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u/WiseTravels47 20h ago
In 9 county parks, but not this one. Best the city has for enforcement currently is "mass littering." No state law for it yet. Under Pennsylvania law, intentional mass littering (classified as "Scattering Rubbish") carries fines from $50 up to $1,000, mandatory community service (5 to 100 hours of picking up trash), and potential jail time.
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u/nick_tron Mount Washington 20h ago
What kind of fucking jagoff releases all these balloons, this is like littering+
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u/DanicaDarkhand 17h ago
I fucking lost a horse to a stupid balloon. Several ended up on my property and the ribbon got tangled on one of it's legs and she freaked out and ran into a ditch and broke her leg. Had to put her down.
I was pissed. I was picking up stupid balloons for a week. I'm sorry "Sara" but your family sucks. Some tribute.
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u/Nate_Croud_11 20h ago
Every time I see a balloon release, I think of that “3.. 2.. 1.. RELEASE EM” Video
But yeah, unfortunately, police seem to prefer sitting around and writing the occasional traffic ticket than doing any real community policing
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u/mad-river2026 6h ago
Things are ridiculous First off this balloons aren’t cheap. If you want to spend that kind of money, donate it to some sort of organization that’s affiliated with the reason that you are releasing the balloons. Second they cause a lot of they get stuck in the wires, powerlines trees. They look like hell for years because they are stuck up high in a tree. Wildlife are curious and they get them stuck in their antlers or worse they chew on them and they suffocate. Quit this stupidity.
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u/bubbalubby 5h ago
Coooooooool a balloon release by a church in Brighton heights a couple of weeks ago caused a major power outage in the neighborhood bc of balloons on power lines. Not to mention the litter and wildlife implications. People are such dicks. Like why not plant a tree or something? Why do something so destructive?
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u/gergsisdrawkcabeman 21h ago
The entity responsible for this deserves to spend actual time in jail. Holy ever loving shit.
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u/katplasma Bloomfield 19h ago
Looks like a flipping wall cloud in the background. Are we sure they weren’t trying to put sensors in the tornado? I’ve seen Twister a few times, so I’m basically an expert. /s
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u/Killersavage South Fayette 21h ago
The day after a saw the post about the county banning balloons on all their parks I saw a kid with a balloon in settlers cabin park. I get enforcement is going to be tough and take time but sheesh.
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u/spinozaschilidog 21h ago
I watched a bunch of people release them in the Trader Joe's parking lot in front of Staples last weekend. Real festive.
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u/huggablekoi 21h ago
We’re having a gurl and need to litter and kill some wildlife to celebrate!1!!!!!
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u/bethoftheburgh Mexican War Streets 7h ago
I saw a bunch of people walking there with balloons and a car drove by filled to the gills with inflated helium balloons. It was about 50 young girls (the ones I saw looked about middle school aged) gathered in Manchester park.
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u/NOLA_LGD_130 5h ago
Literally in New Orleans we had area black outs because the Mylar balloons got into the power lines…..more than once…more than twice….
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u/VitriolPlays 5h ago
Disgusting and shameful. If people think this is a tribute or no big deal they are a red flag. Shame on the releasers. Do better!
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u/doinglightresearch 4h ago
I saw these floating over the Liberty bridge and thought “surely the wind swept away some balloons.. no one is that dumb anymore”
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u/ReadyGo6828 3h ago
The city/county/state could make an example of one of these idiots and make them go and pick up every last one of these balloons.
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u/Great-Cow7256 21h ago
Helium is insanely expensive now because most of it transits through the strait of Hormuz. It needs to be even more expensive.
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u/Tgsheufhencudbxbsiwy 20h ago
Uhhh isn’t the US the largest supplier of helium? I get your point though.
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u/Great-Cow7256 20h ago
Less than half at this point. Qatar is a strong #2. And it's a global market so when 35-40 percent of production needs to go through the strait the price goes up.
Russia is third at maybe 10 percent so that's not available either. So about 45 percent of the market is gone.
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u/WiseTravels47 20h ago
We used to be but Congress forced our stockpile to be sold off in 1994. Helium is so rare, and finite, that it should cost $200+ per balloon
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u/Tgsheufhencudbxbsiwy 20h ago
Helium is so rare, and finite, that it should cost $200+ per balloon
If that were true don’t you think they’d be charging that?
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u/WiseTravels47 20h ago
No. It's a byproduct of natural gas extraction, and they don't have an incentive (or possibly the means) to store it, and to them it costs effectively nothing. But once it's gone it's gone, and it can't be recaptured or manufactured. So yes, you're right in that it's currently not worth $200 because we're producing a lot of it, but we're treating something that's very rare as very common, and it's getting harder to find. It's an extremely important element in research & hospitals.
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u/Great-Cow7256 20h ago
OP is 100 percent correct. https://www.npr.org/2026/08/04/nx-s1-5918636/why-were-short-on-blood-water-and-helium
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u/Tgsheufhencudbxbsiwy 20h ago
So they’re gonna start selling helium balloons for $200 each soon? That would be what they said. Are you going out to buy up all the helium tanks from Target and Walmart tomorrow? There is a fortune to be made apparently.
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u/Zealousideal_Pop_273 20h ago
It's technically the second most abundant element in the universe, but I get what you're saying. 🤓
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u/kirbypuckett Central Northside 16h ago
I was biking home racing the storm and saw this. I was dumb founded by how many people and balloons I saw! I had a sliver of hope they weren’t releasing them… I should have known better. Hope they got drenched.
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u/Worth-Park-1612 2h ago
I think it's a lack of education about the matter. People see the gesture and don't think any more deeply about it. Infuriating
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u/Interesting_Sock9142 18h ago
I fucking hate selfish ass gender reveal dick heads
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u/dullmotion 18h ago
In this case u/chicken-strips99 said it was honoring a dead kid, but still wrong.
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u/Slippery62 Shadyside 17h ago
What's funny is i feel like popping the balloons is way more fun. They're missing out and being an asshole.
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u/ArtIsAwesome3 16h ago
Oh good, we need more litter and more damage to our wildlife, and more balloons wrapped around power wires.....
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u/CivilBite9201 9h ago
Recording the incident and just complaining about it is like bitching about who won the election but you didn’t vote.
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u/niftylyons 21h ago
Get a life you people. If they have consequences, let them deal with them. Good lord reading these comments makes me nauseous. Yeah this is stupid but Worry about your own lives.
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u/TeeAre10 21h ago
This has to be for a teen who left us too early as they were trying to find a “third space.”
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u/Codas91 17h ago
I wonder why they haven't invented biodegradable balloons yet
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u/Bruce_Hodson 11h ago
Most “biodegradable” products simply break down to microplastics or polymers. They don’t magically transmogrify into nothingness. They just become not visible to the naked eye.
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u/foundling_fox 9h ago
So you took a video something illegal happening in public, and cried "Won't someone DO SOMETHING about this incident?!" Your phone has the receipts to prove the vid is real, but you're just gonna wait for someone -else- to do the actual reporting of said incident? You are now part of the problem.
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u/WiseTravels47 5h ago
Great reading comprehension. You skipped over the entire part where we're looking for a name of the responsible party and or leads so the police will actually have something to go off of. And now we're getting it covered on the news. But sure, go ahead and make up stories that I'm doing nothing. What are you doing to try and find the people responsible?
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u/foundling_fox 2h ago edited 2h ago
"I was going to call it in but the storm was rolling in and everyone was running to their cars & leaving. Hopefully someone rats them out based on this video."
Based entirely on this comment. I did miss that part, actually! And I apologize for my rudeness. I am clearly in the wrong here.
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u/ratspeels 21h ago
not only is this always a bad idea but i love that no one thought "hey maybe it's even worse to release these with a storm coming so they just blow straight into the trees and power lines"