Posted on 01/31/2007 12:04:30 PM PST by Howlin
BOSTON -- Four "hoax devices" were found at several Boston locations Wednesday, hours after officials detonated a suspicious package on an elevated structure above the Sullivan Square Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority station.
The additional packages were found at the Boston University Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge and near the intersection of Stuart and Columbus streets. A device described by officials as a pipe bomb was found in the basement of the Tufts New England Medical Center at 185 Harrison Ave.
A spokesman for the Boston Police Department said that all of the packages appeared to be similar.
"Our device was not an active device. We are still treating the area as a crime scene. There were no injuries. Everyone was evacuated properly, and everyone now back to their locations," Tufts New England Medical Center's Brooke Hynes said.
Mayor Tom Menino said that all of the packages found posed no danger, but the incidents remained under investigation. Storrow Drive eastbound was shut down for a brief time, and the MBTA suspended service on the Red Line and planned to bus afternoon commuters between Kendall and Park Street stations.
Earlier Wednesday, the state police bomb squad was called and detonated the package in Sullivan Square just before 10 a.m. Officials said it contained an electronic circuit board with some components that were "consistent with an improvised explosive device," but they said it had no explosives. They determined that the device was not dangerous, but destroyed it as a precaution.
"We determined that this device, in particular, was not explosive," said MBTA Lt. Sal Venturelli.
He said MBTA police were told about the package by a transit passenger who spotted it on a column that supports Interstate 93. The parcel was located on an elevated structure above the bus way and below I-93 in the Charlestown section of Boston at about 8 a.m.
"This is a perfect example of our passengers taking part in Homeland Security," Venturelli said.
An investigation will be conducted into how the package got there and when, he said.
Train service on the Orange Line between Sullivan Square and Wellington stations was suspended in both directions. No injuries were reported.
The northbound side of I-93 was closed, causing significant traffic backups. Motorists were not allowed to access the highway near Sullivan Square coming up from the south.
"Maybe I'm hung up on the calls to LE reporting suspicios packages. The hilarity of that just goes right over my head."
Who made those calls remains to be seen, again, if that was part of the "prank", it should be dealt with.
Saw it. Thanks.
LOL, so much for Homeland Security, good thing they weren't bombs.
Obviously, it is a chocolate milkshake day in Boston.
makes a nice dirty bomb - like cesium and other radioactive materials
I find this disgusting too J.
Placing these things on bridges and in a hospital basement is supposed to be funny?? I hope they have to reimburse LE/bomb squads, etc for all the manpower hours and such.
Hook, like in pop music, something designed to pull you in.
In advertising, a hook pulls you in, also it's a junk mail term (You may have already won...).
I di dnot hear him say the phrase, but an earlier poster said that he repeated the word and emphasized it, he was deliberately using the adman's term.
I really have to wonder how much destruction has to be done in the U.S. for people to actually forget politics, and unite against these terrorists?
So! It was a bunch of clowns?
Next time the ATF/FBI/STATE TROOPERS need to call home and talk to their kids before they go to red alert.
ATHF is not a kid's show - it's on after 11PM Sunday nights. I was turned on to it by a friend who is an auto industry engineer in his mid 30s.
The primary viewership is somewhat geeky types College age and older.
YES!!! Five year per device is good enough..no time off for "good behaviour"...and if TED TURNER had anything to do with this...he needs to go down also.
Hi :-)
I wonder how long the ad people waited before letting LE in on the joke?
The tradition of Buckhead and TankerKC continues. Congrats!
I always check FR first for this kind of stuff. There are a lot of wild theories initially, but someone usually gets it right pretty quick.
So, if it wasn't the pranksters making the calls it's ok? How about after the first report of a suspicious package at such and such location, the jokesters alert LE to their cleverness? Or after the second one, or third, or fourth, etc.????
It boggles my mind. I just don't get it.
Well, now I'm either really lost or out to lunch!
Nah. The Massachusetts taxpayers won't mind a little "extra" taxes for the common good.
And it took them all day to figure this out?
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