Tennis also leads to terrorism

Yet another seemingly harmless activity now proven to be linked to terrorism. Obviously finding tennis balls in a park (gasp!) signifies that someone (probably an Arab) is up to no good. From Athens, Ohio:

Strouds Run State Park was closed for several days last week over a scare caused by six tennis balls placed in Dow Lake.

The balls sank when they were placed in the lake, which aroused suspicions that they contained an unknown, potentially hazardous substance. However, it turned out that the only substance in the balls was water.

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On Thursday, July 5, the tennis balls were taken to an Ohio Department of Health office, which also found that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the balls, Jarvis said.

"They think it was just water," she said. No adverse effects have been reported in the lake as a result of the tennis balls being placed in the water, and the beach and boat ramp reopened to visitors Friday afternoon.

On Friday, park officials were still trying to determine why the individual put the tennis balls in the water, and were "pursuing leads on the identity of the individual," Jarvis said.

Anyone with information on the person who placed the tennis balls in the lake is asked to contact the office at Burr Oak State Park.

Visitors filled up the beach area and lake on Friday after the park reopened, and did not seem very concerned over the tennis-ball scare.

"I come here all the time," said Mark Wallace, who was taking a boat out on the lake. Wallace said the lake is a great place for bass fishing, and that he was not worried about anything being wrong with the water.

Charlie Gassaway took his dog, Mabel, out to the park, and joked about all of the fuss over the tennis balls.

"Those damn terrorists won," he wisecracked. He also was not worried about the water in the lake.

Sharise McElroy was also at the park Friday afternoon with her mother, Kelly McElroy, and her 4-year-old son, Landon Roberts. Sharise McElroy was letting her son play in the water, and was not concerned about any adverse effects from the tennis balls. She and her mother said they did not know much about the tennis-ball situation, but said it will not stop them from going to the park regularly.