Suspicious Truck Prompts Evacuation in Times Square

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/nyregion/suspicious-truck-prompts-times-square-evacuation.html

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An unattended rental truck with wires protruding from its dashboard and gas canisters behind its seats touched off a brief evacuation in a part of Times Square on Saturday night, the police said.

The box truck, parked at a bus stop at 46th Street and Seventh Avenue outside the New York Marriott Marquis hotel, drew the attention of a member of the New York Police Department’s Critical Response Command, a counterterrorism unit, for a number of reasons, the police said.

Wires extended from the truck’s dashboard and there were gas canisters behind the seats. The truck’s keys were in the ignition. The truck listed a Brooklyn address on its side but had a Georgia license plate, and it was unattended in Midtown Manhattan on a busy Saturday night, a police spokesman said.

Pedestrians and occupied vehicles were evacuated from the area, and traffic was blocked starting at 7:50 p.m. as the police investigated. An all-clear was given about 40 minutes later.

It was determined that the gas cans and the truck were empty, the police said.

The truck was deemed safe and the driver, whose name was not released, was located and was being questioned late Saturday night, the police said. He had not been charged, the police said, adding that an investigation was continuing.

In May 2010, the police discovered a crude car bomb in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder on a Saturday night in the heart of Times Square. There was no explosion, but a device was found that included propane, gasoline and fireworks. That vehicle was found on 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, one block away from where the box truck was parked on Saturday.

Faisal Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 2010 case.

The truck episode on Saturday was the second of its kind in the Times Square area. A portion of the Port Authority Bus Terminal was evacuated after a report of a suspicious package around 2:45 p.m.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police, Joe Pentangelo, said a police dog had alerted officers to a suspicious package that was wrapped in brown paper in front of a bar at the bus terminal. That situation was resolved and the south wing of the terminal was reopened about 25 minutes later.