After yesterday's two suspicious package reports shut down a block and then a huge swath of Times Square, people had mixed reactions to the disruptions. One person told WCBS 2, "Anything for safety," while a tourist from Atlanta said, "It's disturbing that anything suspicious can cause an interruption and excitement and everything on Broadway." But people really do see something legitimately suspicious!
The first suspicious package, around 9:40 a.m, which forced a block at 45th and 8th Avenue to be shut down was an "oversized brown bag" containing...a ham sandwich. There was another around 2:28 p.m., about a truck at 45th and 10th Avenue; the police found the vehicle harmless. But the highlight of yesterday's worries was a cooler left in a pedestrian plaza, which caused an evacuation between 44th and 47th Streets and between 6th and 8th Avenues, and left an eerily empty Times Square.
Not only did the bomb squad's robot inspect the bag and take X-rays, both a bomb squad member wearing a special suit and helmet and an explosives-sniffing dog examined the cooler. The bomb squad member, Kevin Canavan, "discovered the cooler contained only a few bottles of Poland Spring water and a bag to hold a book," according to the Post. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said that on a regular day, there are 90-100 calls about suspicious packages, while there were 150 yesterday, "It will eventually taper off. People are being more vigilant. That's a good thing. We would rather err on the side of caution."
One Brooklyn resident told the Daily News, "What are you gonna do? I was on the 24th floor of the first Trade Center tower that was hit. After that, I've got no worries."
