A New Hampshire family took a gender reveal party to a new level when they used 80 pounds of explosives to find out if they were having a girl or boy.
The explosion led to one individual turning himself in to local authorities in Kingston, N.H., roughly 50 miles north of Boston.
Police were dispatched to Torromeo Industries on Tuesday after receiving reports of an explosion. There they discovered a family celebrating a gender reveal party with 80 pounds of Tannerite, explosive targets used for firearms practice, according to police.
The family thought it was a safe area for the explosion, but nearby residents said it caused property damage, a report from NBC 10 Boston said.
“It cracked foundations of our neighbors’ [homes],” Matt Taglieri told the station. “I don’t know how that’s right.”
Other residents believed it was an earthquake, according to a report from the Boston Globe.
“It was a loud boom that shook our four-family townhouse,” Amy Owen said to the Globe. “The kids stumbled and yelled ‘Earthquake!’ and asked me what it was.”
Police said no one was injured in the explosion and confirmed the family is having a boy. The individual who purchased and detonated the Tannerite is cooperating with the investigation and the police “will make a determination on what charges will be forthcoming.”
Trendy gender reveals continue to make headlines — and not always for good reasons.
A 28-year-old New York man died in February when a device used in a gender reveal exploded. A firefighter died in September after battling a fire started by a gender reveal device in California.
A gender reveal in Florida that used what media reports described as a weapon and Tannerite sparked a 10-acre brush fire that caused $8 million in damage in April 2020.
The woman who “invented” gender reveals said she had mixed feelings about the trend in 2019.
“Who cares what gender the baby is? I did at the time because we didn’t live in 2019 and didn’t know what we know now — that assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what’s between their legs,” Jenna Karvunidis wrote in a Facebook post.
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