Speaker 1: You, Lawrence, tell me what you know.
Speaker 2: We love the Victorian Police. And joining us today from
Speaker 2: the Victorian Police is the bomb Squad. Evan and Pete here.
Speaker 2: Good morning, no worries, Thanks for being in.
Speaker 3: I mean you've rolled in in full uniform and it's hardcore.
Speaker 3: I mean that whatever Pete's wearing right now looks terrifying. No,
Speaker 3: we're going to get to your out in a minute, Pete.
Speaker 3: But first of all, what does the bomb squad here
Speaker 3: in Victoria do.
Speaker 4: I've got a few different roles, but usually it's people
Speaker 4: leaving their stuff around the city.
Speaker 3: So it is like when you hear them say don't
Speaker 3: leave you suitcase unattended at the airport, you would get
Speaker 3: the call and go we found a suspicious.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and it's whatever might make it suspicious. Some people
Speaker 4: just think it's suspicious by it's been left out in
Speaker 4: the public. Yeah, and Danguie wrong. A lot of the
Speaker 4: time it's nothing. It's someone's personal bag they've left behind,
Speaker 4: right and then every now and then you get something
Speaker 4: it's a bit more sus sorry.
Speaker 3: Just so, if there was just a random bag suit
Speaker 3: case left at Clarendon Street out the front of our
Speaker 3: office here and someone called the police, you would get
Speaker 3: sent to do it or how do they like break
Speaker 3: down whether it's important enough for you to be there.
Speaker 4: The uniform guys will turn up first and you guys
Speaker 4: going make an assessment and then yeah, if they think
Speaker 4: it's us, they'll they'll give us a bowl. But you
Speaker 4: know over on Clarence Street be a high value target.
Speaker 2: Right, Absolutely, encouragement We okay gifts here?
Speaker 5: Are we okay here? Because I remember back to my
Speaker 5: primary school days. Here we go and if there was
Speaker 5: anything suspicious, we've got to go home.
Speaker 2: And then always be a threat on a test out.
Speaker 6: To the school of exams was a big one.
Speaker 4: Threats at school Yeah, around around exam time, big, big, big.
Speaker 6: Time for to take it seriously, right.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, but there's ways to deal with it and there's
Speaker 4: ways to work out whether it's legit or not.
Speaker 2: Also a lot of fireworks, people storing fireworks. You guys
Speaker 2: get stored, you guys get called out too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, fireworks are a big issue for us because I
Speaker 4: think the people associated with a bit of fun right
Speaker 4: and they are don't get me wrong, but yeah, they're explosives.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, we go to probably
Speaker 4: two or three incidents a year where people being seriously
Speaker 4: injured or killed and sorry to bring the mood down.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's danger of reality.
Speaker 4: Yeah it is. And then and the untold part is
Speaker 4: our guys go out there and then have to live
Speaker 4: with those images and the jobs that carry on. So yeah,
Speaker 4: we had one a couple of Christmases ago on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's a big thing for their family. Obviously.
Speaker 5: What sort of training do you need because it's not
Speaker 5: as simple as cutting the red or the black or
Speaker 5: the yellow or the green or the blue white?
Speaker 2: What do you mean, like in leth Weapie.
Speaker 4: I'm cutting the red wire? Okay, exactly what it's like?
Speaker 4: I mean you said, did I say blue?
Speaker 2: Where did you say red? What color wire?
Speaker 4: That actually sounds like me and Pete last year.
Speaker 6: Is it really like do you cut the red wire
Speaker 6: the blue wire? Is it that simple? Sometimes?
Speaker 4: No, it's not. And it's it's funny. It's like me saying,
Speaker 4: you know, long, long time listening the first time caller.
Speaker 4: It's like just evokes a bit of an eyeroll from
Speaker 4: a bomb tech. Yeah, so yeah, that gag. Yeah, No, look,
Speaker 4: I don't if I'm at a social function, I don't
Speaker 4: say that because it's the first thing, color of the wire,
Speaker 4: completely irrelevant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, but you do.
Speaker 5: But on a serious note, the training is obviously quite extensive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, And there's only fifteen of us and we've
Speaker 4: we've been in the force for what twenty five years
Speaker 4: and there's only been about thirty five of us, So
Speaker 4: quite a niche sort of anything about how many police
Speaker 4: have gone on through Vick Pole?
Speaker 2: Can ik, what's been the scariest situation that you guys
Speaker 2: would have faced here in Melbourne over that time.
Speaker 4: I get this question quite a bit, and.
Speaker 2: Because I just don't know how common it is here
Speaker 2: in Melbourne, like do we have.
Speaker 4: You know, Yeah, we do, we do. I don't. I
Speaker 4: wouldn't use the term scary, like we're well equipped, trained,
Speaker 4: all the methodology, all the intel. I don't think I've
Speaker 4: ever actually been scared on a job. That doesn't sound conceded, but.
Speaker 6: We don't want you to want you to be confident.
Speaker 2: But has there been a job where it's like we
Speaker 2: found a huge amount of explosives in quite a public place,
Speaker 2: or yeah.
Speaker 4: We had a job in at Southern Cross Railway station
Speaker 4: that it was just one of those jobs that look
Speaker 4: at it just went up and down and there are
Speaker 4: a few markers about it that gave us the heb gebis.
Speaker 4: He was there with us, and yeah, it was a
Speaker 4: It was a bucket with a lid taped on it,
Speaker 4: which in itself is a little bit suss. Yeah, left
Speaker 4: on a train platform and yeah, someone's called it in
Speaker 4: And by the time we got there, looked back through
Speaker 4: the CCTV and it had been placed deliberately, with some
Speaker 4: really suspect sort of actions. And for us, that's that's
Speaker 4: not a bag left behind, put there deliberately. And then yeah,
Speaker 4: and then just a while the guys were kidding up,
Speaker 4: we had a woman on the opposite platform filming it,
Speaker 4: which again not unusual in Melbourne, but trains had kept
Speaker 4: going through and she wasn't getting on. She was just
Speaker 4: standing there filming, and I asked the uniform guys to
Speaker 4: go and have a chat to us, see what it
Speaker 4: go was, and she did a runner.
Speaker 2: So what she was almost there, ready to film whatever
Speaker 2: it was about to happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was the feeling. There are there
Speaker 4: there are another market which I won't go into, that
Speaker 4: pointed it to it being explosive. So that was those jobs.
Speaker 4: Do you think it's nothing, but then all of a
Speaker 4: sudden you think it's something What.
Speaker 2: It turned out to be?
Speaker 4: Well, so we use portable x ray. That's one of
Speaker 4: our go tos.
Speaker 6: And portable x.
Speaker 3: Ray like like it goes in and like a robot
Speaker 3: and scans.
Speaker 2: We've got what I knew at the moment. Portable x
Speaker 2: ray is that attached to the little robot.
Speaker 4: That you touch the robot or someone can go down
Speaker 4: in the suit that Pete's wearing and just place it.
Speaker 4: But it gives us a pretty good idea of what's inside.
Speaker 4: And when we first saw it, I actually thought it
Speaker 4: was a fetus.
Speaker 2: What it turned out to be a couple of chickens?
Speaker 2: That was it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, buck at a meat.
Speaker 6: And did they do it for a bit of fun
Speaker 6: to resu up?
Speaker 4: They ended up they ended up catching up with the
Speaker 4: lady and she said, so she was jumping on a
Speaker 4: regional bus and she realized her meat from the VIC
Speaker 4: market wasn't going to last all the way.
Speaker 6: Now that's us.
Speaker 3: Now, look, we've got both of you in here, and
Speaker 3: I want to talk through the outfits and I also
Speaker 3: want to talk through what like do you stand a
Speaker 3: bit further back in that than what our friend Pete
Speaker 3: over here does in this suit, because this suits way
Speaker 3: more hardcore.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely is a tool for every job. So the
Speaker 4: kid I'm wearing is pretty much our lowest level of protection,
Speaker 4: and Pizza in our highest.
Speaker 3: You're you're just bossing them all around.
Speaker 2: We're going to go to a quick break. When we
Speaker 2: come out, we want to run through the suit and
Speaker 2: the robot and.
Speaker 4: I believe is there another have you a suit for?
Speaker 2: Lauren?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 6: Can I go put it on?
Speaker 2: How long is it gonna be? Take? And what's away?
Speaker 4: Ways about thirty five kilo and takes about five minutes
Speaker 4: for us to put it on.
Speaker 2: Okay, lots, you go get suited up. We are on
Speaker 2: the air with the Bomb Squad this morning. We are
Speaker 2: doing Probe the Pope host.
Speaker 6: Okay, putage up.
Speaker 2: On our socials as well if you want to check
Speaker 2: it out. Jason Lauren on Instagram going, I've a look
Speaker 2: at the stories. We'll continue our chat next still.
Speaker 1: Over Lawrence, tell me what's our favorite segments.
Speaker 2: We love the Victorian Police and we showcase a different
Speaker 2: area every couple of weeks. We've got Evan and Pete
Speaker 2: here from the Victorian Police bomb response units.
Speaker 5: Now, now you know back in the day radio used
Speaker 5: to run beat the bomb?
Speaker 2: Could they help us win that? I think it's a
Speaker 2: bit different. Yeah, okay, so next time the other radio
Speaker 2: stations running at Evan, I'll give you a call. Can
Speaker 2: you tell us stop? It's about to now, Lauren's gone
Speaker 2: to put the suit on. We're going to see the
Speaker 2: suit in the second first, So can you run a
Speaker 2: suit the robot? Yeah?
Speaker 4: So the robot I've got today is the Dragon Runner.
Speaker 4: It's one of our smallest rus sounds cool.
Speaker 2: I love control cars. So it's very similar to that.
Speaker 4: Very similar, and it's very much just quick deployment. So
Speaker 4: the other robot's bigger, take a bit longer to get
Speaker 4: out of the trucks. So it suits that really quick
Speaker 4: sort of job where you just need to get it out.
Speaker 2: Now, what can it do? Has it got next ray on? There,
Speaker 2: light sirens, anything like that. Oh, here it comes the
Speaker 2: Dragon Runner? The Dragon Runner. So it's got like a
Speaker 2: robotic arm.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's got the robotic arm. You can control it
Speaker 4: remotely a couple of cameras.
Speaker 2: Doesn't shoot anything out or anything.
Speaker 4: It's not loaded up with, but you can load up
Speaker 4: weapons on it. Yeah, it's functionality is okay, but it's
Speaker 4: probably not out.
Speaker 5: Just say there was an explosive device and it detonates.
Speaker 5: Does that survive the boom.
Speaker 2: Or you've got to go to JB and get another one.
Speaker 4: No, we get another one. So we said that kind
Speaker 4: of hope for that day. Right, you got a brand
Speaker 4: new robot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that wouldn't survive the No, okay, Now, speaking
Speaker 2: of surviving the we've got Pete here in the suit,
Speaker 2: in the full suit which people would have seen in
Speaker 2: all the movies TV shows when the bomb unit gets deployed.
Speaker 2: How much of an impact can that suit take? And
Speaker 2: do you train with the impact? Like, I know this
Speaker 2: is a stupid question, but do you like throwing sandbags
Speaker 2: at each other to get used to the impact.
Speaker 4: It's so they're actually rated to five hundred grams of
Speaker 4: explosive at one meter, So if you've ever seen five
Speaker 4: hundred grams go off, it's actually quite a big bang, right,
Speaker 4: And it's designed to Yeah, I should save you.
Speaker 2: But what will that do to the body, to be
Speaker 2: like being hit with a sledgehammer?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, yeah, and you still get pretty seriously injured. But
Speaker 4: it's just designed to keep your vitals going right.
Speaker 2: And I noticed he's got because I'm quite jealous of it.
Speaker 2: It's got internal air conditioning. Sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: He is so Lauren, she's here to save the day.
Speaker 5: Has just walked in wattled in. Actually, so we've.
Speaker 2: Got Pete Evan and Miss Phillips from the bomb disposal
Speaker 2: unit is cooked.
Speaker 6: How do you do it? It's like forty kilows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now you've got to get down on your knees
Speaker 2: and diffuse the bomb.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't fling me if I get down on
Speaker 3: my knees on this, I'm not getting back up the
Speaker 3: heaviest like I actually can't explain how uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: To fix this strap.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So it's got air con unit in the suit. You
Speaker 2: could be in there for like forty five minutes.
Speaker 4: We trained for about yeah, forty minutes. And it's something
Speaker 4: you do when you're trying to get into the unit.
Speaker 4: Obviously you train it quite heavily to make sure the
Speaker 4: guys can put up with it, not only physically, but
Speaker 4: perform functions in it as well.
Speaker 6: Like how long would you be in this for?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, we try and keep it to about forty minutes,
Speaker 4: depending on the temperature as well, right, I have to
Speaker 4: the hottest day in summer. It's something you got to
Speaker 4: take into conisation.
Speaker 6: Run in this because you just walk like the Michelin.
Speaker 6: You actually have to sometimes.
Speaker 4: Run, sometimes run. But it's a bad day running mate.
Speaker 6: You know what I was thinking, that's going to go off.
Speaker 6: You run, I take this off. I'm going to feel
Speaker 6: light as a feather.
Speaker 5: Psychology of good psychology better than the gym. I don't
Speaker 5: know that the pink pumers don't really complete the look.
Speaker 6: I didn't put the pants on just quickly.
Speaker 2: Is there any TV show or movie that comes close
Speaker 2: to a realistic view of what you guys do? Twenty four?
Speaker 2: What about that? That was a good one? Twenty four was good?
Speaker 2: Tommy Lee Jones blown Away? Great movie?
Speaker 6: Bombs or it's actually counting down like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd love to say yes, but you.
Speaker 2: Don't know how much time you normally.
Speaker 5: Thomas had a big, big bomb scare.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: And also in a country practice, I remember when the
Speaker 5: hospital had a box there.
Speaker 4: Did you guys get called to that one? Wandon Valley?
Speaker 4: Someone's lost back back on Clarence.
Speaker 3: We're having been fun this morning, but in all seriousness.
Speaker 3: You guys do an amazing and very important job. Thank
Speaker 3: you because.
Speaker 6: Most of us wouldn't have the balls to do this,
Speaker 6: and good on you guys.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: We very much appreciate the work you guys do. Evan
Speaker 2: and Pete from the Bomb Response Unit of Victorian Police.
Speaker 2: You can check out the get ups on our social
Speaker 2: The robots just left kind of get your breakfast laws.
Speaker 6: As a questioned, I deserve some after this.
Speaker 5: Jason Lauren Lauren wake up feeling good following them on
Speaker 5: the socials