cut the BLUE wire, or was it the green one...
Posted on 07/11/2005 9:51:59 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — With area mass transit systems on heightened terrorist alert following the London subway bombings, authorities took no chances when a suspicious object was found at a Metro Red Line station in Hollywood. The object, a cooler with wires sticking out of it, was found by a sheriff's deputy on patrol about 1:20 p.m. at the Metro Red Line station at Vermont Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. John Baylis.
"It was a small, Igloo type personal container with wires sticking out of it, colored wires, numerous wires," Baylis said. "They were consistent with the type used in blasting fuses."
Sheriff's deputies, firefighters and a bomb squad were called, and both the Vermont-Sunset and Vermont-Santa Monica subway stations were evacuated and nearby streets closed.
"We had about 120 to 150 people down there at the time because a train had just come in," Bill Heard of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. "We got everybody up to the surface in good order."
After the cooler was spotted by a deputy, it took well over an hour for the bomb squad to arrive at the subway station, Baylis said.
He said the bomb squad came from Whittier and was held up by traffic. Once the specialists were on scene, it took about 20 minutes for them to X- ray the cooler and determine it was empty, he said.
The stations and streets were reopened about 3:30 p.m., he said.
Baylis said that following the London bombings, authorities expected some false alarms in the Southland, and it wasn't clear who placed the suspicious- looking cooler in the subway tunnel, or why.
He said a transient was arrested in the station for trespassing, but it was unclear if the transient had any connection to the package.
He said the terrorist early warning system is in use, and that the incident will be reported to state and federal investigators.
The incident was treated with the same level of precaution the department treats all such incidents, regardless of the bombings in London on Thursday, Baylis said.
"Whether it's an orange or a red alert, all situations like this are handled appropriately," he said.
The only difference is that there are more people on staff, he said.
test run.
Or maybe someone is just yanking our chain to scare us.
Nah, California nut case having some fun.
Yes, bomb squad held up in traffic....on a sunday.
Karl, are there video cameras on the Metro Red Lines???
If there aren't, they should be!
Or maybe someone is just yanking our chain to scare us.
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Easy to do, now that half the terrorist world and clandestine nukes are in our country by stepping across the Mexican border --- (/sarcasm sorta)
"Or maybe someone is just yanking our chain to scare us."
IMO, in this case you may be right. If they can find out who did this they should be throwing the book at them.
This must have been yesterday. Look at the times.
Yep, the name of the game is "terror", and that is exactly what is going on here.
We are in for a very looooooong summer and fall.
How can it be empty yet have a bunch of wires sticking out?
let's hope so.
someone drank all the beer first...
cut the BLUE wire, or was it the green one...
The LA subway goes from someplace you don't want to be to someplace you don't want to go.
Blue Line - 76,000 weekday boardings
Red Line - 119,000 weekday boardings
Green Line - 26,700 weekday boardings
Gold Line - 15,000 weekday boardings (white elephant line)
MTA Busses - 1,234,000 weekday boardings
Amtrak goes there! You will get there quicker since you bypass that mess in Ventura....(How long does it take to build a road?)
A test run ..?? A test to see how long it takes for officials to get to the bomb ..?? Or .. how long to set the timer to catch the police or bomb squad when they arrive on the scene.
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