Manhattan, NY – A garbage bag filled with enough high-powered explosives to level a building was left sitting in a Manhattan cemetery for a year before a volunteer worker noticed it and summoned the bomb squad yesterday, (as was reported by Vos Iz Neias).
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An army of cops descended on the historic Marble Cemetery on East Second Street at around 11 a.m. after discovering the ratty-looking package — which was unearthed by a caretaker a year ago and just set aside — in a trash can.
Investigators are scrambling to figure out who buried the eight bricks of C-4, which is more powerful than TNT, among the dead and are focusing their attention on several groups, including the Hells Angels, whose headquarters are just steps away on East Third Street, sources said.
Though officials said there was never any real danger of an explosion — there were no blasting caps or detonation wires in the bag — the plastic explosives could have been used to wreak incredible havoc, officials said.
“This amount of material was used in the London bombings in 2005,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “Inside the building, obviously, it could have caused an awful lot of damage.”
Andrew Knox, 50, who sits on the cemetery’s board, said that after the worker showed him the package, “it didn’t even compute in my mind that they could be real explosives.”
Knox said the C-4, which was marked with the word “explosive,” looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago and crumbled into powder when he broke one in half.
He assumed the explosives were a movie prop and told the man who found them to toss them in the trash on the curb.
But after talking with several people about his discovery, the volunteer realized that the contents might be dangerous and called the police.
About 12 months earlier, another worker first found the bag buried near a bush. But instead of alerting authorities about a cache of explosives, the worker left the bag near a tree.
Plastic wrapping protected the bomb-making bricks — 1.25 pounds each — from the weather.
Kelly said officials had no idea how long the explosives had been in the cemetery.
The commissioner said investigators are also examining a rambling note found Sunday outside the 9th Precinct. Although the note made reference to Second Street and contained religious statements, Kelly said cops could not make an immediate connection between the note and the explosives. The note was signed, “Jesus Christ.”
Investigators were also examining the sidewalk outside the cemetery, where someone used chalk to write, “I really hope one of you find this.” The sidewalk scrawl included a loopy arrow that pointed toward the cemetery, sources said.