Gutter Ball

Here’s a a weird crime weapon. Maybe we need federal bowling ball control:

A 69-year-old man tried to kill three law enforcement officers by dropping a 16-pound bowling ball at them from the terrace of his 17th-floor apartment, police officials said yesterday.
The ball narrowly missed the officers, and the district attorney in Brooklyn charged the man, Douglas Stiff of East New York, with attempted murder, attempted assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
. . .
Two police officers and a parole officer, on their way to track down a parole violator, diverted their mission and responded to the call. As they walked around the side of the building, a bowling ball thudded to the ground a few feet away, the police said.
The officers looked up and saw a man on a terrace on the 17th floor, law enforcement officials said. When they went up and knocked on Mr. Stiff’s door, he answered it, wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck, law enforcement officials said.
The officers found a second bowling ball on the terrace, and arrested Mr. Stiff.
. . .
The practice of throwing things at police officers from rooftops and other high places is somewhat common in New York, enough so that the targets have a name for it. They call it airmail. Even so, a bowling ball is an unusual piece of correspondence, the police said.