Police Evacuate Car Rental facility in Queens New York. Bomb squad called in.

Lucianne.com ^ | July 3, 2003 | Lucianne Staff

[max_rpf]

threw=through

[SarahW]

Probably someone just left a suitcase or backpack in the car....

Suspicious package, so they take the precaution of treating it like a bomb.

If it were rented by someone with a country of origin that has given us trouble, or has a name similar to a person of interest, extra caution would probably be taken.

[Chad Fairbanks]

But... but... Bayonet Lugs and Flash Suppressors are dangerous and evil, don't you know. God knows what those things would have done had they been left unattended for much longer... probably would have caused that weapon to go shoot up a school or something... The feds were right to ban weapons with those features...

Good thing they tracked this one down...

[For_God_and_Country]

Not a frantic scene there, but I'll bet the pucker factor at PAPD hq just went up. There will be some hercules teams cruising manhattan tonight.

[SarahW]

Automatic weapon, huh... I guess there is something to this after all.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

A week or so back, I heard that Texas planned on staying at level orange, because of the Fourth of July. NY is on orange, too. This must please the terrorists to no end, except for the fact that our national threat level hasn't been raised.

[BrooklynGOP]

Yep, in Chinatown.

[aristeides]

Like leaving an automatic rifle in the trunk of your rental -- not too smart.

Unless the intent is to attract a lot of law enforcement personnel. Like if the vehicle is booby-trapped.

[aristeides]

Anybody know what the threatening message said?

[For_God_and_Country]

Buy Hillary's book or else!!

[Petronski]

Well, if there are weapons in the trunk, at least we can be sure it's not the Mets' batting equipment.

[firebrand]

There were two suspicious objects that stopped the subways. One was at Canal Street station and one was near City Hall. They passed the radiation test and the chem test, but not the bio test.

I was caught in this brouhaha, and the above information was circulated at the company I was working at yesterday. Hudson Street below Houston was closed off, creating total havoc with the Holland Tunnel traffic.

[For_God_and_Country]

Ok,Ok. I've had to hear this all week at work. God, I hate the Yankees.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Or a clever distraction. Keep everyone's eyes on LaGuardia while something is in the works for elesewhere in the city.

[michigander]

Car Rental Parking Lot Near LaGuardia Evacuated

POSTED: 11:25 a.m. EDT July 3, 2003 UPDATED: 12:00 p.m. EDT July 3, 2003 NEW YORK -- NYPD has evacuated the area around the National Car Rental parking lot at 9510 Ditmars Blvd in Queens, across from LaGuardia Airport.

Police have blocked off all access to the rental office on Ditmars Boulevard while the bomb squad sweeps the area for explosives.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says someone returned a car to the agency. When workers there opened the trunk, they discoverd what appeared to be some type of automatic weapon with a "device" attached to it.

The car was parked on the second deck of a garage at the location.

Police were summoned to the scene at about 10:45 a.m., with Emergency Service Unit squads dispatched to the business as well, said police spokeswoman Carmen Melendez.

A spokesman says for National Car Rental says the car in question was repocessed two weeks ago and was taken to its facility on Ditmars Blvd. David Gilman says nobody's safety was compromised and the car was never on the airport grounds.

---

Wasn't there a suspicious car found outside One Centre Street in Lower Manhattan yesterday?

Yes.

[max_rpf]

I agree, but even this would be a hodi move... I don't think it is possible to rent a car with cash! They would be leaving a trail that the FBI might actually be able to do something with.

[Brian S]

My guess its a "paintball" gun...

[riri]

They passed the radiation test and the chem test, but not the bio test

Interesting, that they have all these tests.

Probably some discontinued ept tests and some old hth pool water testers.

[Petronski]

Hey, I'm an Indians fan. I feel your pain.

No matter what happens,
Chief Wahoo keeps on smilin'...

Not a bad way to be.

[Tree of Liberty]

Fox said that Homeland Security received two calls about the incident. One said there was an explosive in the trunk, the other said it was an FA rifle (how they know it's full-auto without at least inspecting the selector switch is beyond me).