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.

[Azzurri]

This is getting curioser and curioser.

[SarahW]

NOw when is someone going to give us the scoop on what the FBI found out?

[SarahW]

PING

[demnomo]

I'll bet that between 7:00 PM EST and now, the drivers may have ditched the cargo. I pray the FBI has the correct perps. It's dang suspicious since the van sped away without the mall security guy's permission. I'll also bet that we may hear very little of this incident because of a government economic worry that shoppers will avoid malls this coming holiday season.

[SarahW]

They did have time to ditch cargo. If they had explosives or fertilizer in the truck, think that traces would be present?

I want to know who the drivers were.

[SarahW]

A scanner snippet a little earlier this afternnon mentioned stuff being poired out the back of a truck.

Another mentioned a truck (apparently pulled over) as "hauling fish"

No way to tell if either of these snippets has to do with THE truck. If so, maybe they were explaining or trying to hide smell with fish?

Please forgive human tendency to form narrative with string of temporally related events...

[Aliska]

Good job, Sarah, (and others) with your realtime reports!

[SarahW]

Caveat -

Another scanner blip saying bolo cancelled, truck found, operators questioned and (this time) TRUCK CLEARED.

However, it ocurred to me that this was from a truck spotted earlier today, maybe not THE truck.

Sure would like to know the whole scoop.

[demnomo]

I spoke with a friend who worked for the San Francisco Police Department. She said that bomb squad dogs could probably smell residual scents left by the van when it was stopped in front of the mall. Don't know if that is the case. I wonder. Has the story made any other news outlet? The Ryder van could be in New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvannia or Washington DC by now!

[SarahW]

Amother blip at 5:04 EST - saying that the operators of the truck were "cleared of any activity." Hmm

[Aliska]

I'll also bet that we may hear very little of this incident because of a government economic worry that shoppers will avoid malls this coming holiday season.

That's what it is beginning to look like. The American sheeple are now the canaries in the well. Why oh why do we have to wait until they do some more terrible things before we get them out of the country? The ones here on visa I mean, not the citizens.

[exmoor]

Didn't they hear the driver of the van say "Yo Querio Taco Bell"?

[NautiNurse]

"Yo Querio Taco Bell"

A few weeks ago, Jay Leno was reading 'classified ads' from "The Afghanistan Newspaper" on the Tonight Show.

One advertisement was selling men's T-shirts boldly stating, "I AM REALLY MEXICAN."

[exmoor]

LOL

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

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

Would probably be charged with a hate crime...ignorant capitalist lackey drawing down on Middle Eastern Muslims shortly before Ramadan, or something like that.

[TXnMA]

Sarah,

Thanks for all your good, hard work on this!

NECN (New England Cable News) just reported that the drums in the van contained solvents and the van belonged to a waste disposal company.

Needless to say, everyone is (deservedly) praising the alert security guard for erring on the side of caution.

FR had a 24-hour jump on this one! Great work, FReepers!!!

TXnMA

[SarahW]

Thank YOU for the update - I really wanted to know what was in the barrels!

Solvents, huh...

Waste disposal company... Amy word on why they were at the mall? I sure don't want anyone dumping out tricloroethyl -benzowhatzits, etc. in the parking lot.

Any word on why they ran away from the guard?

[jackbob]

Thanks for the link to the prior thread (I was looking for it) Here's the link again:

FBI Seeks van, possible bomb in mall?

[jackbob]

Thanks for the link to the prior thread (I was looking for it) Here's the link again:

FBI Seeks van, possible bomb in mall?

[cajungirl]

Thank you Sara for being our eyes and ears. My suspicion is that the truck was going in to clean the equipment in a restaurant. They use powerful stuff for the stoves in those places, and the grills. Odd they ran away, maybe illegals or something. And why would they use a ryder truck?