SUV With Suspicious Item Inside Prompts Bomb Scare On Bronx Street
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Bronx neighborhood was on alert Monday afternoon as a bomb scare shut down a local street.
As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, members of the Bomb Squad cautiously approached a suspicious car in the late afternoon.
Around 1:45 p.m., police were sent to the corner of Starling and Olmstead avenues in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, after a red Nissan sport-utility vehicle was found parked with a suspicious package inside.
The NYPD Bomb Squad went to work on the suspicious item, first breaking a window. They then used their equipment to determine ultimately that it was safe to remove the item, which appeared to resemble a pressure cooker.
An eagle-eyed traffic officer spotted the SUV with what he thought looked like something suspicious inside. CBS2 is told the car, which had Massachusetts license plates, may have been stolen.
Immediately, there was a large response from the NYPD. They closed off the streets in the area as a huge crowd of onlookers gathered.
"Of course it is scary, because this is a business district," one neighbor said.
"Of course it's nervous, because this is -- actually I'm not used to those things – so when I come in, there's a lot of police cars," another said.
When the all-clear was given, cheers from neighbors could be heard for the NYPD.
"They did a good job," a resident said.
Sources said the item in the SUV was indeed a pressure cooker, but it was empty.
CBS2 was still awaiting confirmation from the NYPD late Monday about what exactly was found in the SUV, but everything in the area had reopened by 5 p.m. and the SUV was towed away.