A bomb hoax scattered attendees of the ACS Rubber Division meeting in 1983.
During the technical group´s fall convention and exhibition in Houston, a rodeo for the attendees was held 25 miles from the city in Stafford, Texas. The event was disrupted when someone called the ranch and local police, claiming a bomb had been set at the site. The activities were halted, the audience chased out of the stands, and the police searched the premises.
Although the "all clear" was given in a half hour, most of the 700 attendees piled on the buses and headed back to Houston.
But a number of party animals remained for the Texas-style celebration of music, drink and dance. That included three delegates from China´s rubber industry, who were attending the meeting for the first time after a thaw in U.S.-China relations, and FBI agents who had tagged along.