POLICE HOAXED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21821, 26 November 1940, Page 6

POLICE HOAXED

MYSTERIOUS PARCEL PLACED ON BRIDGE Lieutenant James Morrissey, of the New York police, saw a package on the guard rail of the Williamsburg Bridge when he was about half-way across the bridge on a routine afternoon inspection. He bent over it, studied it for a few seconds, and then sped to the Manhattan end of the bridge and telephoned police headquarters. In a few minutes sirens were shrieking at both the Manhattan and Brooklyn ends of the bridge as all available policemen were called out to halt or divert the heavy Sunday traffic, and other members of the force made their way up the bridge to the package, which was on a guard rail, a pair of old shoes tied to its side. From the bomb squad came a homemade corrugated container, looking like a clothes hamper, but containing ten gallons of heavy oil. While crowds estimated at 10,000 persons gathered at both ends of the bridge and impatient motorists slapped the horns of their cars. Detective William Morgan of the bomb squad snipped the cord that held the shoes to the package. The package, he noted, was of cardboard, three by five by 12 inches. The label showed it had originally contained cherry candies. Cautiously Morgan pried open a corner. What lie saw caused him to lift the package very gingerly and deposit it in a container of oil. Then the container, painted red, with "Danger Bomb Container” lettered on it, was taken to an empty section off Cherry Street, near the East River Drive Park. While a cordon of police stood at a distance, keeping back curious pedestrians, the package was soaked in oil for 40 minutes. Meanwhile,- harried traffic and motor-cycle policemen started traffic moving again. At 4.20 p.m. it was removed from the container and opened. Its contents were an electric fuse, two wooden sticks, vaguely resembling sticks of dynamite, a can of tobacco, a can of shoe polish and a piece of wrapping paper. The police said the package had undoubtedly been placed on the bridge by a crank or a practical joker. It took more than two hours for the police to get vehicular traffic moving again at its normal pace.