Cannonball hits house after TV experiment goes wrong

A cannonball crashed through a home in California on Wednesday after an experiment for MythBusters, a US TV show, went awry.

A hole near the master bedroom window of a Dublin, Calif. home marks the exit point of the cannonball 

The Discovery Channel’s MythBusters were filming an episode in which they tested projectiles shot from a cannon and whether they would pick up the same speed and have the same impact as the ball.

The show’s hosts had been shooting the cannon at a rock quarry in northern California.

Instead of hitting water-filled bins however, the cannonball went about 650 yards, bounced in front of the home and crashed through the front door before exiting through a cinderblock wall at the back of the house. It then bounced at least once more before smash the window and dashboard of a minivan.

“It missed the target and took kind of an oddball bounce,” said Alameda County Sheriff’s Department spokesman JD Nelson. “It was almost like skipping a rock on a lake. Instead of burying it into the hill it just went skyward.”

Fortunately nobody was injured, and the home’s residents did not even wake up until the broken drywall settled on top of them, Mr Nelson added.

“We are really, really grateful and glad that no one was hurt,” co-host and executive producer Adam Savage said in an interview. “Discovery is committed to making this right and making sure that everything that has been damaged is as good or better as before this started.”
MythBusters is a science show that stars special effects experts Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who conduct unusual and occasionally explosive experiments to test the validity of urban myths, such as whether shooting fish in a barrel is as easy as it sounds.
“All proper safety protocol was observed” prior to the incident, a spokesman for the cable TV network added.