Guys Shooting at Exploding Targets Caused Loud Blast Thursday

Lauren Traut contributed to this report

The sound of an explosion that rattled people and houses Thursday just before noon was found to be nothing more than two guys shooting at exploding targets.

Will County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Tom Budde said police received multiple calls and traced them to the area of Manhattan-Monee and Center roads in Green Garden Township.

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The exploding targets, which contain Tannerite, are legal and can be found in sporting goods stores, Budde said. Despite the legality of the target, Budde said due to the size of the sound heard by many people, the men may have used double or triple the amount.

People as far away as Tinley Park, Matteson, Mokena, New Lenox, and east Joliet, as well as Frankfort, told Patch they heard the blast and felt their homes shake.

Police did not arrest the two men, who agreed to stop shooting at targets.

“They were more than happy to cease and desist at that point,” Budde said.

No citations were given and both men were far enough away from residential areas.

Initially, people were reporting an explosion occurred at the Joliet Oil Refinery, and word spread to that effect via social media, but refinery spokeswoman Tricia Simpson said those reports were untrue.

“We actually heard that,” Simpson said. “We live about 20 minutes from the refinery. We heard something and felt a reverberation but the refinery is under completely normal operations. Everything is fine and I’m not sure why that’s being reported on social media but there’s most definitely nothing, no explosion and no incident at the refinery.”

People also found a three-year-old story online about a house explosion in Manhattan and circulated that on Facebook and Twitter as reason for Thursday’s explosion. That also was untrue.

Joliet Police and other Will County police departments also received calls about the blast.