Well… it was bound to happen eventually…
I’m just glad we look absolutely stupid as a result!
Palisades Center “bomb” a hoax
By STEVE LIEBERMAN AND CATHERINE FOLEY
slieberm@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 20, 2005)The Clarkstown police evacuated thousands of people at the Palisades Center in West Nyack this afternoon after a hoax bomb wrapped with foil and wires was found at the third-floor food court.
The package created to look like a bomb was found near or inside the bathrooms close to the security office, Clarkstown police Detective Stephen Cole-Hatchard said today from the scene. The mall’s carousel ride popular with children is near the area.
“We’re conducting a criminal investigation,” said Cole-Hatchard, assigned as the department’s spokesman at the scene. “This is a hoax bomb made to look like a bomb with aluminum foil, wires and wrapped in duct tape.”
Mall employees found the package about 3:15 p.m. Police and mall security guards evacuated the mall within an hour.
Less than two hours after evacuating the massive mall and after three bomb squads had arrived, officers exploded the package when they could not positively determine what was inside it.
The protruding wires raised the level of concern, “making it even more suspicious,” Rockland Undersheriff Thomas Guthrie said.
“The package and its contents are unidentifiable,” Cole-Hatchard said. “We couldn’t confirm whether or not it was an explosive device so the bomb squad conducted a controlled detonation.”
Adding more tension as bomb squad officers were inspecting the first package, officers circling the massive mall in a helicopter spotted a box on the roof.
Though the box turned out to be empty, it was located directly above where the first package had been found, police said, an unnerving coincidence.
Officers also scurried toward a parking lot at the closed Burger King restaurant outside the mall when a gasoline tanker truck was seen unattended.
The driver had just parked in the area after being unable to get back onto the New York State Thruway, police said.
The evacuation caused traffic backups with the mall parking lot and roads bordering the mall closed off, including Routes 303 and 59, as well as the entrances to and exits from the New York State Thruway.
Circuit City employee Andrew Refaul said rumors spread quickly about a bomb inside the mall. Refaul, 19, of Pomona said about 40 people were inside the electronics store when the announcement came blaring from the loudspeakers. His brother also works at the mall.
“Some people did get a little scared,” Refaul said. “After the initial loud speaker announcement, some people started sprinting out of the mall. The security people were a little scared.”
Refaul said when he got into the parking lot, he saw at least two helicopters hovering overhead.
