SAMARITAN THIEF ALERTS COPS TO 'TERROR' VAN

NY POST ^ | 4 july 2008 | LARRY CELONA

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He's a criminal, but he "did the right thing" when it mattered - alerting cops to what he feared was a terror plot the day before the Fourth of July.

At about 5 p.m. yesterday, an unidentified thief with a police record broke into a red van that had been parked at 53rd Street and Second Avenue in Brooklyn's Sunset Park for about a month, a source told The Post.

[csvset]

Huh.

[goldstategop]

Even the bad guys love their country!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[G.Mason]

Honor among thieves?

[mkjessup]

It would seem so.

That guy might be a thief, but apparently deep down there is a reserve of patriotic blood.

Good for him, lucky us.

[BuffaloJack]

I think this tarnished patriot just earned his “Get Out Of Jail Free” card.

[tsmith130]

The street is lined with brownstones, and there's a ballet studio and a small Muslim school. So he drove the van 15 blocks to 37th Street and parked it at a desolate waterfront location behind the Costco store and next to some little-used piers.

I can't decide if that was unbelievably brave or unbelievably stupid. I guess since nothing happened on the 15 block drive, I'll go with brave...damn brave.

[livius]

The street is lined with brownstones, and there's a ballet studio and a small Muslim school.

Well, I guess we know who the owners of the van were.

[Malsua]

can't decide if that was unbelievably brave or unbelievably stupid

Stupid. They didn't identify the explosive, but moos love to brew TATP "Mother of Satan". The stuff blows up if you jiggle it.

As much as I hate thieves, at least this one doesn't approve of murdering innocents.

[2ndDivisionVet]

It’s a sad day when a penny-ante thief is more patriotic than most of the democrats in Congress, etc..

[tsmith130]

Yeah, damn ballerinas. Ya just can’t trust ‘em!

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Update(?)

Van left on Brooklyn street packed with hazardous material tied to blast suspect

BY SCOTT SHIFREL and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, July 5th 2008, 12:03 AM

Keivom/News

Van was parked for weeks, then thief broke in and called cops about find.

A van loaded with gasoline cans, wires and switches that prompted police to swarm a desolate Brooklyn street may belong to a suspect already in federal custody for alleged bomb-making, law enforcement sources said Friday.

The red Ford with mismatched license plates in Sunset Park contained explosives nearly identical to those previously used by Yung (Mark) Tang, who once tried to blow up a renter during a landlord-tenant dispute, sources said.

Investigators crawled over the van at 37th St. and Second Ave. Friday and discovered several 5-gallon containers and 12-ounce water bottles filled with a clear liquid that smelled like gasoline, according to a police source.

The jugs were connected with wires but no obvious detonator could be found, the source said.

"The bomb squad believes they seem similar, and it was found within a few blocks of [Tang's] house," a source said.

Investigators believe that the van had been parked at 53rd St. and Second Ave. for more than a month, and its dangerous cargo was discovered only after a car thief broke into the vehicle Thursday afternoon.

When the thief realized what was inside, he ditched it on a quiet stretch of 37th St. and called the police.

"He thought it might have been terrorism on the day before the Fourth of July, so he called the cops," said an NYPD source, adding it was unlikely the man would be charged in the van break-in.

Although the vehicle was found near where Tang, 38, had lived with his estranged wife, he has been held since May at a federal detention facility in Rhode Island after being caught with explosives in a vehicle while traveling from New York to Massachusetts.

Investigators think he may have been planning to threaten his wife with explosives.

He also faces 50 years for attempted murder, arson and other charges in state court in Brooklyn related to a 2002 bomb attack on a tenant.

The NYPD did not officially identify a suspect Friday, and Tang's lawyer denied his client was connected to the van.

"It may make for a very interesting news story," said George Farkas, "but as far as I know this has nothing to do with my client."

sshifrel@nydailynews.com

With Kamelia Angelova

[gusopol3]

how many more of these are parked around the country?

[gusopol3]

thanks

[girlangler]

I’ll admit I am on my first cup of coffee this morning and maybe not fully awake.

I read this article and never could find where it said what they found in this van. Did I miss something? What did they find in the van?

[twntaipan]

Exactly!

[girlangler]

Thanks. I posted my previous comments before you did this. I couldn’t figure out, from the other story posted, what they found.

[tsmith130]

He was stunned when he looked inside - it was filled with gas cans and Styrofoam cups containing a mysterious white substance with protruding wires and switches.

[Diogenesis]

Bingo

It’s a sad day when a penny-ante thief is more patriotic than most of the democrats in Congress, etc..

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Update Pt 2

Background on Yung Tang

Yung W. Tang, a citizen of China who lives in Greenwood Lake, New York has been tied to a variety of wild incidents, that includes a bombing of a tenant who was behind in his rent, having bomb components in a van parked in a preschool parking lot during a period of time he was involved in a divorce, and accompanied by a claim from his estranged wife that he threatened to throw her overboard while the pair was on a family cruise.

The attorney for Tang, denies the charges, but the evidence strongly suggests that Tang was about to kidnap his wife and then blow up the van they were in.

Tang was found sleeping in the van, parked in a preschool parking lot in Wallingford, Connecticut. Inside the van police found a black duffel bag containing what appeared to be the components of a pipe bomb; another bag containing a fake mustache, makeup, and gum remover; a digital timer and a bag containing wires and caps, authorities said. This was three days after the bombing of the tenant.

Tang also had two improvised explosive devices, two radio-controlled initiators that could be used to remotely activate a bomb, two firearm silencers, a pair of clear plastic gloves, a knit hat that can cover an entire face and what appeared to be gun powder as well as other suspicious items.

Police say the contents of the van would have caused a huge explosion that would have devastated the van and everything in it, as well as buildings in the surrounding area.

Tang said he was sleeping in the parking lot because he became tired driving from Boston to New York. That parking lot just happened to be close to where his wife lived.
Mrs. Tang alleges that her husband assaulted her and threatened to throw her off a cruise ship.

Court papers allege, "Stated simply, the status of the defendant's relationship with his wife, including the divorce, the claims to the marital property and the defendant's being restrained from proximity to his wife and children, all provide a motive for the defendant to have loaded a van with a highly dangerous and destructive mix of prohibited explosives, and parked it in close proximity to where his wife lives _ and where she could most easily be found and abducted inside the van; and the prior, alleged threats and assaults show that the defendant was quite capable of seeking to inflict such harm upon his wife."

Mr. Tang has pleaded not guilty to the Connecticut charges and has not been charged with the bomb components found in the van. Prosecutors say he may not be charged with the current incriminating collection of explosives and crime concealing apparatus if there is a plea to the Connecticut case.

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It’s possible it belongs to a crazy Chinese SOB, named Yung Tang. At any rate, good on the car thief to alert the cops.