Manhattan, NY – An Oldsmobile with two gas cans in its back seat triggered a bomb scare near Union Square Thursday night – but it was just the latest false alarm in a city on edge, police said.
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The NYPD sealed off Union Square as the bomb squad investigated the sketchy 1991 Cutlass Ciera parked outside the Con Edison headquarters on Irving Pl., near E. 14th St.
The drama lasted for more than two hours as the bomb squad X-rayed the creepy clunker and deployed a technician in a protective suit to take a closer look.
The bomb squad also set off a series of “flash charges,” which blasted out the Oldsmobile’s windows.
But cops eventually tracked down the car’s owner, who had been at a concert by the British punk band the Buzzcocks, police sources said.
As it turned out, the Buzzcocks played a role in ending the alarm. Concertgoers who came streaming out of the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza said the band stopped the show to make an announcement for police.
“They stopped in the middle of the song and said, ‘Does anyone have a 1991 Cutlass?'” said Shari Newman, 32.
“It’s scary,” Newman added. “This is a sign of the times.”
The unidentified man who had driven the Oldsmobile to the show did not have a malicious intent, police said. He had the gas cans inside his car because he works as a landscaper.
“It does not appear to be suspicious,” a police source said of the vehicle.
Yet before police cleared the scene, residents and people who worked in the area were frightened by the massed fire trucks and police vehicles.
Mendi Garza, 20, who works in a Chipotle restaurant on the corner of Irving Pl. and E. 14th St., said she was stunned when first told of the alarm.
“There’s so many threats coming to New York,” she said. ” How many more?”
The bomb scare was the fifth in the city since Faisal Shahzad’s failed Times Square car bomb two weeks ago.
What a failure “cash for clunkers” was
What a bunch of fools they don’t even know what their looking for. Just as a look at what happened with the times square bombing those few cops who as part of their job is to block the street when something doesn’t look right (I could promise u when they first blocked the st they thought it was a regular car fire) so let’s get over it we don’t need stupid Obama coming here & getting attention
The terrorist won!
Is the city going to reimburse him for the damage that was done to his ‘zetzer'(trashy car)??
As long as it aint nuclear, more people will die in car accidents, than bombs by a very very very very very substantial margin.
Does this mean we should stop driving.
Ridiculous