Looking for bargains last Saturday morning at the South Bay Drive-In swap meet, I picked up what I thought was some lacing material out of a decorative flowerpot and, to my horror, held in my hand an electric blasting cap labeled “DANGEROUS!”

I set the pot with its explosive contents on a table in front of the lady running the stall and told her that these components were used to detonate dynamite and in my opinion were very dangerous. The lady looked in the pot, then at me, and said she would get rid of them immediately.

I continued my shopping but returned 20 minutes later to see the pot where I had left it and with a young boy looking inside. I immediately contacted the lone Elite security guard on duty, Ms. Donna, who I took to the stall as she explained to me that no explosives or guns could be sold on the premises.

Ms. Donna confronted a man at the stall who explained that his mother didn’t know what the blasting caps were and that he would put them in a bag and lock them in his truck.

A man who identified himself as a retired cop told me, “We were always warned not to use our radios near those things.” How stable would you say they were? I asked. His friend replied, “Not stable enough to have at a swap meet.”