Shoe Box Bombscare Clears Post Office

by Monica Davis

Americans have become more paranoid these days.  Bombs in the mail. Anthrax sent through the postal system. Pressure cooker bombers. The nation is bomb consciencous, particularly after the massive pressure cooker bombers caused so much death and destruction at the Boston Marathon. 

Bombs just don’t happen in far off places. 

Leave a box, bag, or suspicious package behind and the police come running. Every month police departments nationwide bring out the firetrucks, bomb sniffing dogs and robots, often just because somebody left an empty box at the post office, or forgot a backpack in the park. 

But, the world has changed. Bombers and terrorists are making bombs from pressure cookers and cooking utensils. Cell phones set off explosives from a distance and the world is not as innocent as it was. 

Now, even the smallest police and fire departments are but a phone call away from bomb experts. Today’s bomb sniffing robots, and explosive hunting dogs hunt potential bombers from Alaska to Maine, and everywhere in between.

Federal institutions, post offices, installations and military and defense outposts are on higher alert than we could ever have dreamed in times past.  And those who carelessly leave packages behind, setting open boxes in post offices, or even forgetting backpacks on park benches now generate police responses–even if they meant no harm.

Sgt. Steve Evans, who heads the police’s bomb squad, said the package was empty. It was an unmarked shoebox that was left on a scale, weighing about 15 ounces. A bomb defusing robot opened the box as post office employees waited patiently in the parking lot for about an hour. MOREHERE

In less than a month,  cops found 17 bombs in a “very curious man’s apartment”, cleared an airport when someone left a bunch of fake grenades lying around, locked down an airport when someone left their camera on a plane and caused a bomb scare,and went into high gear when a would be bomber  left a bomb in Ireland to blow up Queen Elizabeth.

Once a rarity, bombers now infest urban areas, target federal facilities–and even go after schools. What’s a war zone?

Any where a wanna be terrorist wants to create one.