[Jet Jaguar]

ping

[Jet Jaguar]

What did the B&N security say or do?

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Perhaps you witnessed a trial run. I don't think it can hurt to report it. There have been numerous incidences of "trial runs" on everything from airplanes where they removed mirrors and tried to drill thru the walls to reach to cockpit to attempts of entrance to nuclear facilities. Turn it in and let the authorities decide.

[GeronL]

weird

[skr]

Report it to the FBI.

[GeronL]

Maybe a random act of air freshener??

lol... kidding... you do what seems needed... could be bad.

[FairOpinion]

I think you should report it to the FBI:

https://tips.fbi.gov/

I don't like the sound of this one bit.

[Rockingham]

Do not get panicked about it, but report it to the local and state police and to the FBI, preferably in writing. It could be a prank or a spoof to test public and official alertness to such a mode of attack. In these days we do not have the luxury of assuming that it was a nut case acting out even though that is the most likely explanation.

[Petronski]

Report it.

[Cindy]

Hi Avenger.
Well that sure is interesting.

Contact the non-emergency number at your local police department and report it. Ask the dispatcher and/or officer for the cad incident number or the case number.

Contact your local FBI ( http://www.fbi.gov ) office and/or DHS ( http://www.dhs.gov ) and relate the incident to them. It would be helpful if you give them your incident or case number.

[7.62 x 51mm]

Record it on paper; then turn it into the FBI or DHS and let them handle it. I went through something very similar here in SE Penna with some castor bean plants (Ricin) last fall, and they followed through on it, a few weeks later. The narrative thread I posted about it, on FR, was pulled for security reasons.

Get it on 'the record', A.

[Pro-Bush]

Report it.

[Bobber58]

track him down, find his family, then slit their throats...oh wait, that's hem, not us...nevermind

report it

[sourcery]

This time he draws out of his pants pocket a small white plastic spray bottle and starts spraying it around the room

Perhaps it's some sort of religious ceremony: Let us spray...

[FairOpinion]

I suggest that at the very least, you send in as much info as you remember, with all the details, as other suggested, via the internet to the FBI.

As I understand they do look at the submissions in a fairly timely manner of a day or so.

For current, immediate attention you need to call them, I would actually suggest doing both -- send it in via the internet AND call the local FBI office, which is listed at the fbi.gov.

If they have some other reason not released to the public to watch for things, they may be very interested, and you just never know. Better safe, than sorry.


FBI Los Angeles
Suite 1700, FOB
11000 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90024-3672
losangeles.fbi.gov
(310) 477-6565

And for internet tip submission, the link I already posted:

https://tips.fbi.gov/

===

Considering that I live in that general part of LA, I don't want to see some smallpox epidemic or something.

[Iris7]

If you don't get real sick in the next two weeks you should be OK.

Seriously, unless the guy was wearing a full face mask respirator he would be baked too. Though, of course, a serum antitoxin is easy to make.

Can't resist pulling your leg. Last Christmas the students in the local B&N cafe wouldn't leave their seats or stop socializing when I needed badly to sit down. Hour after hour they sat there, mostly socializing. Should be chased out.

Bio is most easily spread in other ways than a hand pump spray bottle. Whatever was in there was probably more insulting than toxic or infectious.

[Avenger]

Ok, I reported it on the FBI tips. I will call Santa Monica police tomorrow. The B&N security guard didn't say much of anything. I pointed him out and he said he would keep an eye on him. I am surprised nobody noticed him before me. He was acting very strange - nervous, looking around but clearly not for books or coffee. I spotted him right. I guess most everybody else in the coffee shop was too buzzed on coffee. I should have gotten the phone number of the guy who got sprayed since he will probably be the first to die. :-)

[endthematrix]

In New York City a man was arrested after he was spotted spraying what turned out to be feces-laden water over the contents of a midtown salad bar.

In a NY subway a man got into an altercation with Metropolitan Area Transit Authority security personnel. Sometime during the series of events, the suspect allegedly spraying an unknown substance from a spray bottle into the air. The suspect also reportedly dropped a glass bottle of some sort and it broke, spilling some liquid. (cleaning fluid)


I also remember a man getting arrested for spraying someone and claiming it was anthrax. It was not.

[wideminded]

I'm thinking the guy probably had a serious mental illness and whatever was in the spray bottle was harmless. If someone really wanted distribute a harmful agent in a bookstore, there would be more discrete ways of doing it. Nevertheless you should probably call the police non-emergency number and report it.

[Caipirabob]

If not the real thing, a dry run.

There are no other scenarios to account for this. "Nutecase" is simply part of the same thing.

I would have been completely freaked out too. At least you had enough sense to tell the gaurd.