Police seek van with suspicious cargo

The Boston Globe ^ | 11/3/2001 | By Jenny Jiang and Fran Riley, Globe Correspondents

[be-baw]

After days of preparing for vague threats, police departments across the state last night had a tangible menace to chase: A rented van with a cargo of possible bomb-making materials was stopped at a Cambridge mall and sped away before police arrived.

[be-baw]

There was a thread running on this all night long (over 750 posts), but this is the first extended print article that I know of.

[atafak]

Last we heard from those monitoring scanners was that they had arrested someone from a ryder van. Suspect had attempted to flee on foot.

[Mr. Mulliner]

Thanks for posting this, be-baw. When I first saw that other thread, it was 600 posts long already and I couldn't take the time to wade through it to get whatever details people were providing.

I was hoping to find out whether the security guard had a gun and if he did why it seems he didn't use it. It's very possible that in Cambridge, MA -- Berkeley East -- that the guard wasn't allowed to carry a gun, but even there it seems impossible to believe.

[Samwise]

Probably not. If he had a gun, he might hurt someone--like a terrorist or something.

[NautiNurse]

The van had a Florida license plate attached, but a law enforcement official and a Ryder employee said that it appeared to be a false plate.

A false plate? Maybe they mean a stolen plate? Wrong type of plate for a rental truck? Granted, we have not less than 30 different types of tags here--and some and quite colorful.

I heard awhile back that LEO in other states have a difficult time with ID due to the extraordinary number of different themes/types of FL license tags.

[Jim Noble]

>>The Bay State, the official said, was not mentioned as a target in the renewed alerts that officials in Washington and California had announced in recent days<<

Yes, and I have heard it is official Al Qaeda policy to announce their targets several days in advance.

[Ann Archy]

What nationality were the men??

[AmericaUnited]

Jim, that's funny and my thought too.

[Jim Noble]

This "official" is obviously totally reliant on higher ups to tell him what to do, where to go, and what to think.

Not what we need on the front lines these days.

We should give his job to the security guard.

[vrwc54]

The Boston Globe has a policy of never revealing the race or nationality of suspects so as not to offend its reader's liberal sensiblities. One can only speculate.

[rebel]

I can't believe there us not a description of the drivers in this report. (1)The drivers were seen and spoken to, (2)under conditions that indicated they were suspected of planting a bomb (3) and if there is a stateide search for the vehicle a description of the drivers would have been a vital piece of information. Why was there no description of the drivers given?

[SamAdams76]

There are lots of underground garages in the Boston area in which a car bomb could cause mass destruction. I'm glad the security has been ramped up. I drove into the Park Plaza underground garage last week and they were checking every vehicle thoroughly. They made me pop my trunk.

[vrwc54]

see #10

[ventana]

I just want to say good job on the part of this security guard. This is what is meant by all Americans being on guard. Peggy Noonan had a great article yesterday about our all being soldiers. I am sure many will dismiss her as being a Chicken Little. But I think it is time for all of us to deal with practical realities just as Israelis do. My goal is to be as prepared as I can be, so that in an emergency I can help my family and neighbor to the best of my abilities.

[alley cat]

Why was there no description of the drivers given?

Two possibilities:

1. Driver was "middle eastern-looking" but the media doesn't want people profiling or otherwise being un-PC, or

2. Driver was NOT middle eastern, and they are afraid people won't take this seriously.

[snorkeler]

Do you have a url for that thred? I forgot to mark it.

[dhfnc]

Thanks - infomation good -
I can't believe that they did not catch the van. I was in that thread last night, there was a link to the Boston police scanner where you could listen. It was interesting, however that van is probably a long way from Boston now, probably completely out of New England. I certainly hope they find it SOON!

[PoorRider]

I wish the news networks would run this story - it would be helpful to let others outside of the Boston area know that they need to watch out for this van.

[dhfnc]

I wish the news networks would run this story
I agree - that Van could be close to my state by now. You would think that the networks would alert people to this. A runaway Van is worth at least a tag line running on the bottom of the TV.

[cgbg]

The Boston Globe is the media at its worst. As someone who lives in New England in a rural area I need to know:

--License plate of Ryder truck

--A full description of occupants including nationality if known or guessed by witnesses.

Anything less is unacceptable.

Give me the facts (and then I can do _my_ job as an alert citizen).