FBI Investigates Car Filled With Explosives in New Haven

Police have arrested a man in New Haven Connecticut after they discovered his vehicle was filled with explosives, guns, pipe bombs and propane tanks, according to news reports.

The suspect has not been identified.

Around 11:30 p.m., police said that a car was found with explosives at the intersection of Grand Ave and Clinton Ave.

From Fox News

FBI New Haven spokesman William Reiner told FOXNews.com that the bureau is now helping local police in the probe, but declined to elaborate.

Cops pulled over a motorist driving a car full of pipe bombs, rifles and a propane tank in New Haven about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to FOX 61.

A bomb squad was called in and a silver Mercedes was towed away. There have been no reports of injuries.

Authorities closed off a four-block area because of the danger posed by the explosives, but did not evacuate.

Source

30 Quarantined In Possible Anthrax Attack – Pomona

30 quarantined due to suspicious powder A suspicious package, containing an unidentified, yellow powder, opened Thursday at a college in Pomona left one student exposed and 30 other people quarantined for their protection as hazardous materials teams and the FBI investigated the possible attack.

A “possible anthrax in an envelope” call was reported at 2:07 p.m. to the Student Services office at Western University of Health Sciences, 309 E. Second St., said Inspector Mathew Levesque of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“One student was exposed but is showing no symptoms at this time,” Levesque said. “And 30 other people have been quarantined to defend them from an exposure.”

Source

Deliveryman Robbed of Suspicious Package

There is no indication that this incident is terror related, just somewhat of an odd story. Ferry-Fillmore District detectives are investigating the gunpoint holdup of a FedEx driver making deliveries on Bissell Avenue at about 4:45 p. m. Wednesday.

Police said the driver was accosted in the truck by two men—one with a handgun who held him at bay as his accomplice took a package addressed to a Schauf Avenue house that was vacant.

Police that after the holdup on Bissell, he was approached at two other locations about the same package and on Schauf Avenue, a man told him the package should have been directed to another address.

What was in the package was unclear.

Source

Suspicious Buyers Put Scrap Metal Yards On Alert

Police have warned scrap yard managers to be cautious after a group of suspicious scrap metal buyers visited a Council Bluffs yard. The men paid cash for five vehicles and scrap metal last week at Rasmussen Mechanical Services in Council Bluffs. The men said they were from Texas and worked for a company called Consolidated Surplus.

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“We’re not saying they aren’t legitimate, we’re saying their company is not legit,” said Council Bluffs Sgt. David Dawson. “And the business they’re doing appears to not be legit.”

There is no indication that this incident is terror related at this time. The activity is of a suspicious nature and we’re posting the story to create additional awareness. As always, if you see anything suspicious, report it immediately.

Authorities’ suspicions were supported by the Michigan Manufacturers Association, which alerted its members to a similar situation. According to the association, a group of well-dressed men purchased scrap metal and used machinery with cash. The men claimed to be from a Texas company that later turned out to be bogus.

Source

Plane Delayed In Lynchburg After Suspicious Comments

A flight heading to Charlotte from Lynchburg had to be delayed because of comments made by a passenger.

The 23-year-old man was in the lobby of the airport around 2:30 Sunday afternoon when he was overheard talking on his cell phone. Witnesses say he told whomever he was speaking with that the plane wouldn’t make it to Charlotte and that it would fall out of the sky.

He broke his phone in half when he was approached by Transportation Security Administration officials. He told them he had he was God, but he was injured so he couldn’t show them his powers.

He then told deputies with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office that he had been treated at a mental hospital in West Virginia.

The man was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital on an emergency custody order for a mental evaluation. He was not charged with anything.

Explosives trained dogs searched his luggage, his car, and the airplane, but they didn’t find anything suspicious.

Source

Homeland Security Calls Police To Investigate Incoming Flight

Colorado Springs Police  were called to the airport Sunday afternoon by Homeland Security to investigate an incoming flight. Police were asked to check out the paper work on the privately owned Cessna. At this time everything appears to be in order and there is no additional information to report.

The plane originated out of Texas and officials are not saying why Homeland Security wanted the plane checked out.

Suspicious Bottles Found at News Offices

A day after two plastic bottles of blue liquid with homemade labels with the words “Winter of Frozen Dreams” were found at the Times Union, Schenectady police said someone left five bottles outside the Daily Gazette this morning with the same words. In both cases, the liquid they contained was found to be harmless. Schenectady Fire Department Capt. Mike Denny said the bottles found around 11:30 a.m. in a plastic bin were marked “Winter of Frozen Dreams.”

A hazardous materials crew took samples and determined the liquid was a “nontoxic dye in water.” It was turned over to city police for further examination.

There were no injuries reported and the building at 2345 Maxon Road Extension was not evacuated, according to Sgt. Eric Clifford, a police spokesman.

Source

Alarming Cost Of False Alarms, Anthrax Hoaxes

A security camera recorded the man wearing dark sunglasses and a hooded sweat shirt as he walked by Boston’s Symphony Hall Feb. 9 and dropped a cardboard tube marked “Anthrax Beware” at the door.

Emergency medical crews raced to the site, firefighters cordoned off the area, police halted traffic and life froze to an anxious halt until a hazmat team signaled the all-clear: The tube was empty.

In the 7 ½ years since America’s worst bioterror attack — when letters laced with anthrax spores killed five people, closed Congress and the Supreme Court and crippled mail service for months — U.S. agencies have spent more than $50 billion to beef up biological defenses.

No other anthrax attacks have occurred.

But a flood of hoaxes and false alarms have raised the cost considerably through lost work, evacuations, decontamination efforts, first responders’ time and the emotional distress of the victims.

That, experts say, is often the hoaxsters’ goal.

“It’s easy, it’s cheap and very few perpetrators get caught,” said Leonard Cole, a political scientist at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., who studies bioterrorism. “People do it for a sense of power.”

Among the recent targets:

• Nearly all 50 governors’ offices

• About 100 U.S. embassies

• 52 banks

• 36 news organizations

• Ticket booths at Disneyland

• Mormon temples in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles

• Town halls in Batavia, Ohio, and Ellenville, N.Y.

• A funeral home and a day-care center in Ocala, Fla.

• A sheriff’s office in Eagle, Colo.

• Homes in Ely River, N.M.

The FBI has investigated about 1,000 such “white-powder events” as possible terrorist threats since the start of 2007, spokesman Richard Kolko said. The bureau responds if a letter contains a written threat or is mailed to a federal official.

Full Article – Seattle Times Newspaper.

Des Moines Police Report Suspicious Activity On Plane

Security officials say they found something suspicious Tuesday night while cleaning a plane at the Des Moines Airport.

Maintenance staff found a 9-volt battery in one of the seats on the plane, ASA Delta Connection flight 5318. The bottom of the battery had been taken off and one of the cells was pulled up, police said.

The battery was tagged as evidence, placed in a bag and stored in a locker as investigators try to figure it out.

Police were called to take a report about 10:30 p.m.

Source

Las Vegas – Plane Delayed After Suspicious Incident

McCarran passengers on a flight headed to Minneapolis were forced to get off the plane and be re-screened after a suspicious incident.

McCarran officials say a Northwest Airlines flight was boarding early this morning when the pilot noticed an employee of the wheelchair contractor had boarded the plane and was talking with a passenger. Read more