The New York Post
New York City Police fear that five empty suitcases left at Penn Station, at New York’s FBI headquarters, and other security hot spots in early April were a test by terrorists bent on a Madrid-type attack on commuter rails, The Post has learned.
A confidential Metropolitan Transit Authority police bulletin, titled “Possible Surveillance Testing Tactics,” reveals K-9 cops are on edge over a “suspicious packages pattern” they encountered between the last week of March and the first week of April.
“During the past week and a half, the K-9 Unit has responded to approximately five calls for unattended/suspicious packages which they cleared,” the confidential bulletin stated.
“However, uniquely, all cases involved empty suitcases.
“These cases appear to be unusual because in most cases of an unattended bag/package there is something in the container, whether personal belongings, clothes or other items.”
At Penn Station, a beat-up suitcase was found in the main waiting room at 9:40 a.m. on April 1, sources said.
The bulletin, sent to New York State Police and Westchester County cops on April 5, asked them to report “any similar cases” to the MTA’s counterterrorism task force.
“We were called to an unattended bag at Penn Station, the area was cordoned off and a bomb-sniffing dog was brought to scene,” MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said. “No explosives were detected. This was an unusual event because the bag was empty.”
Another empty suitcase turned up at 26 Federal Plaza, sources said. Officials have not ruled out the chance the bags were left by pranksters or derelicts.
MTA cops and state troopers ride commuter trains in and out of the city and are expected to step up security aboard commuter trains headed into Penn Station during the Republican National Convention this summer, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said last week.
An army of up to 3,000 police with bomb-sniffing dogs from various agencies will sweep the nearly 3,000 subway and commuter trains that enter Penn Station each day, Kelly said.
Rather than stop trains at checkpoints, cops will seek unaccounted-for baggage on rolling Metro-North and LIRR trains and on platforms, while heavily armed NYPD Hercules units will turn up at stations unannounced.