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Posted on 01/19/2003 3:02:29 PM PST by StriperSniper
Edited on 07/06/2004 6:38:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Authorities closed highways and the New Jersey Turnpike's western spur after a Greyhound bus carrying 16 passengers was stopped and evacuated Sunday.
Greyhound spokeswoman Kim Plaskett said the FBI is involved.
Local police and the FBI did not release any details for several hours after the incident, which began just before noon.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
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After 3 1/2 hours, no explosives found aboard Greyhound in E. Rutherford
Monday, January 20, 2003
BY KATIE WANG AND WAYNE WOOLLEY - Star-Ledger Staff
A tip to the FBI in California led to a search for a suspicious package aboard a Greyhound bus in Bergen County yesterday, forcing authorities to close portions of Route 3 and the New Jersey Turnpike's western spur and snarling traffic for hours on some of the state's busiest roads.
Authorities came up empty in a 3 1/2-hour search of the Los Angeles-to-New York bus and its 16 passengers and their luggage were sent to their final destination just after 3 p.m.
"We were looking for a package," said Joe Valiquette, a spokesman for the FBI's New York field office. "There was no package that we were interested in. ... It was not there."
The information that led authorities to halt the bus in the shadow of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford just before noon came from more than 3,000 miles away, from the FBI's Sacramento office, which received a cryptic tip about two New York-bound packages, said Nick Rossi, a bureau spokesman there.
Rossi said a Northern California resident contacted the FBI on Friday after receiving a voice mail about the packages from a male caller he did not know.
"It does not contain any direct threat. It does mention two packages -- at least one of which is supposed to be on a truck," said Rossi. "Even though they don't mention explosives specifically, the caller's sense of urgency and some of the language used in the message had created a sense of suspicion on our part."
The content of the message, Rossi said, indicated that the call was not meant for the resident who received it. The caller used the first name of the person he was trying to reach and used his own first name, Rossi said.
Although the voice mail made no mention of a bus, agents in Sacramento then received another tip that led them to ask New Jersey authorities to search the Greyhound, Rossi said.
Greyhound notified the driver, who pulled over on Route 3 near the Route 17 intersection. Within minutes, a phalanx of law enforcement officials including FBI agents, State Troopers, local police and officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey swarmed the bus.
As traffic backed up for more than two miles each direction on Route 3, onlookers watched the painstaking search unfold.
Angelo Masino, a security supervisor at the Meadowlands, said he saw authorities remove two pieces of luggage from the bus and lay them on the ground.
As the search continued, the area of roads closed to traffic expanded.
After closing Route 3 and the Route 17 ramp onto the east-west highway just after noon, officials closed the New Jersey Turnpike's western spur and Exit 16W closed about 2 p.m., said turnpike authority spokesman Joe Orlando.
By 3 p.m., officials had deemed that the bus contained no suspicious packages. None of the passengers were detained. By 4 p.m., all of the roads had reopened.
Kim Plaskett, spokeswoman for Greyhound, said the passengers finished their trip to New York on another bus provided by the company.
She said the bus made 31 stops during the three-day journey, had last stopped in the Central Pennsylvania town of Milesburg, and had been scheduled to arrive in Manhattan just after 11 a.m.
The FBI said the search for the packages continues.
Agents traced the call received by the resident to a pay phone in Southern California, but have not yet identified the caller, Rossi said.
"We've tracked down a number of leads," Rossi said. "There's no deadline, but we would like to resolve this as quickly as possible."
It was not the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that the FBI has closed ports, major highways and airports after receiving a tip about suspicious activity.
In September, the FBI closed Interstate 75 in Florida and detained three Muslim men after a waitress at a roadside restaurant told authorities she overheard them discussing terrorism. The bureau determined the tip to be groundless and released the men.
On New Year's Eve, authorities closed New York Harbor to all private watercraft after receiving information from a foreign intelligence source about the possibility of a waterborne terrorist attack.
The FBI said yesterday they deemed the tips they received a strong enough potential threat to warrant the search of the bus and closure of roads.
"After 9/11, these are the times we live in," said FBI Special Agent Steven Kodak of the Newark field office.
think everyone in Milesburg just about knows everyone else (or is related to them)...
I’ve also heard that said about Utah...
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