Is the Empire State Building New York's Bermuda Triangle?

Fox News.com ^ | Jan 27, 2008 | not specified

[RDTF]

NEW YORK — It’s been dubbed the “Empire State Building Effect." And now questions are being raised as to whether the famous skyscraper may really be Manhattan’s version of the Bermuda Triangle.

Every day about 10-15 cars and trucks simply stop working within a 5-block radius of the 102-story building, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

In one recent incident, a person said he had to lock his vehicle manually because the keyless remote-controlled lock was disabled. He came back to find he was locked out and had to call a car service which used a crowbar to get the door open, the Daily News writes.

The alleged “effect” dissipates rapidly as you move away from the building. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up,” says Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, in the Daily News report.

-snip-

[GOPJ]

wonder what they have installed recently to cause this

That would be my guess too...

[The Electrician]

Every day about 10-15 cars and trucks simply stop working within a 5-block radius of the 102-story building, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

I used to work on West 30th St., on the 11th floor, just a few blocks from the Empire State Building, and had a great view of the building from my window.

I found that the building had exactly the same effect on me - 10 to 15 times a day I'd find myself stopping work and looking out that window. Weird, huh - just like the Bermuda Triangle.

It was amazing during a thunderstorm - I've seen the building struck two or three times during the same storm - the angle from my window to the top of the building was near vertical, and so the lightning strikes looked foreshortened, because I was almost directly underneath them...

[Turbopilot]

Heh...I just failed at math. It’s actually more than a 78 square block area.

[groanup]

it’s New York-a lot of folks just passing by on the sidewalk know how to break into a car a lot more gracefully than that.

LOL.

[CaptRon]

Every day about 10-15 cars and trucks simply stop working within a 5-block radius of the 102-story building,

How long has this been going on and why haven't we heard about this before. Article doesn't say.

[astronomer]

New to Free Republic. If you go to Mt Wilson observatory in California, you will find that the automatic car door locks don't work in the parking lot because of all the nearby TV broadcast towers sending their signals. Cell phones don't work either. Is there a broadcast tower atop the Empire State building?

[Signalman]

Every day about 10-15 cars and trucks simply stop working within a 5-block radius of the 102-story building, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

Point 1. The Empire State Building is in mid-town Manhattan where the heaviest traffic is. Makes sense that more cars break down in that area than other areas of the city.

Point 2. There are 500 other buildings in mid-town Manhattan. Who's to say that it's not one of THESE buildings that is causing vehicles to "stop working".

Point 3. How many vehicles stop working every day in any other large city, say, in Chicago near the Sears Tower? I'll bet the numbers are comparable.

These kinds of stories are only believed by gullible people.

[VirginiaConstitutionalist]

Shouldn’t be a surprise. The whole building is a huge super-conductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence.

[wally_bert]

It is part of the New Jersey Parallelogram. Something I remember from a cartoon episode of the "Real Ghostbusters" cartoon.

[GOPJ]

These kinds of stories are only believed by gullible people.

Nah, it's backflow energy from a future weapon... sarcasm/off

[scrabblehack]

Back in college (1986), a buddy invited me to his bachelor’s party (leaving from Ann Arbor to New York — an 11 hour drive). He said when we got there, there would be a car broken down on the Cross-Bronx Expressway. There was.

[trumandogz]

I got food poisoning from a hotdog I bought from a cart within a five block radius of the ESB.

I never, until now considered blaming a building on my misfortune.

[Defiant]

In the San Diego neighborhood we used to live in, the garage door opener would stop working for weeks at a time. Not just for us, but for everyone living near the bay, where the Navy base is. There were articles in the paper about it, and everyone blamed the Navy, but the Navy would never fess up. All of a sudden, the problem would end, and the garage door openers would start working again.

If this is happening, it could be because something similar is going on in or under the Empire State Bldg.

[Cacique]

bump for later

[skeptoid]

. . . . .AND . . . .

. . . . it has it's own ZIP CODE !

[dighton]

I need another drink....

Weird. Me too, and I’m a coupla thousand miles from Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street.

[Egon]

<shudders>

[UCANSEE2]

[UCANSEE2]

[UCANSEE2]