Silly String easier to collect than ship

DEPTFORD, N.J., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A South Jersey couple trying to honor a request by a soldier son has wound up with 80,000 cans of Silly String stored in their garage.

Todd Shriver last year asked his mother, Marcelle, to send a few cans of the stuff to Iraq, where he was then on duty in Ramadi. Shriver and other soldiers had discovered that Silly String -- plastic goop that is shot from an aerosol can -- was useful for detecting booby traps.

Marcelle and Ron Shriver decided that collecting Silly String might be a good project for their church. The story got picked up by newspapers and broadcasters across the country and the cans started coming in.

Then Marcelle Shriver found that getting the Silly String to Iraq was a problem, The New York Times reported. Because it is packaged in aerosol cans, it cannot be sent by parcel post or package delivery services.

The military takes no responsibility for Silly String because it is not considered standard military issue.

The Shrivers have sent some Silly String to Iraq with encouraging messages and usually with the help of sympathetic soldiers at Fort Dix. Now, when anyone calls Marcelle Shriver and asks about Silly String she tells them not to send it to her.