The Park Slope Courier verified the story, my story, about who was responsible for the bomb scare. But not a word about OTBKB. Wonder how they got the story? I’m guessing they read it on OTBKB and talked to the police. I knew the story was true; fact is often stranger than fiction. That was my scoop, Courier. Hands off. This from the Park Slope Courier:
The person responsible for putting cops on full alert by leaving nearly a dozen unattended luggage bags along 8th Avenue has been found.
The “bag man” turned out to be…a bag man. Or, should we say, a homeless person who spent his day trying to let go of his surplus of suitcases, backpacks and duffel bags that he had collected over the years.
Police confirmed that an area homeless man was responsible for dropping the bags along 8th Avenue between Union and Carroll streets and along Montgomery Place the afternoon of July 3, a move that led some anti-terrorist-savvy residents to wonder if a mad bomber was targeting the area.
Concerned neighbors called 911. Each time one of the bags was found cops requested the bomb squad to X-ray the bag to see if anything dangerous was inside.
Eleven abandoned bags were found in total, said cops from the 78th Precinct, adding that three bags were found at one location.
As the Bomb Squad scurried from spot to spot making sure that the bags were free of explosives, nerve toxins or body parts, cops were beginning to wonder if they were being tested.
Luckily, most of the bags were empty. A few were stuffed with newspaper.
As more and more bags were cleared, cops began wondering if they were being toyed with by an area prankster with nothing better to do with his Independence Day weekend than to watch area cops break a sweat.
That’s when a woman came forward claiming that she knew who was responsible.
Police were told that the woman’s neighbor was boarding a homeless man. The two got into an argument that morning over all of the pieces of luggage that the man had accumulated over the years.
The tipster believed that the homeless man ultimately agreed to get rid of some of the bags, which he did that afternoon during a walk through the neighborhood.
Investigators later confirmed the woman’s suspicions, although it was unclear if the man responsible for raising everyone’s blood pressure was questioned or charged, although the only thing he could really be charged with was littering.
Captain John Scolara, the commanding officer of the 78th Precinct, said he was glad that the entire ordeal ultimately turned out to be an innocent misunderstanding rather than something more sinister.
“We went through all of the paces,” he said. “It was quite an exercise."
