The Impact News

Issue date: 5/5/07 Section: News

The Yorktown parking lot created a stir on Sept. 13 when a cooler was believed to potentially be holding a dangerous substance or bomb. It was later discovered that it enclosed water bottles. [Click to enlarge]

(YORKTOWN) Sept. 13 - A cooler found in the parking lot of the office park where Mercy College's Yorktown campus is housed caused a bit of a stir Thursday night as students tried to get to their cars after class.

According to Channel 12 Westchester, the Yorktown Police Department received a call at around 5:50 p.m. of a suspicious package in the Strang Boulevard office park. They responded and immediately cornered off the parking lot used by the Yorktown campus and the occupants of two other buildings.

The Westchester County Police Bomb Squad was dispatched to the scene and investigated the cooler, finding, according to News 12 Westchester, only bottles of water.

Students were allowed back into the parking lot around 7:30 p.m.

Some were none too pleased with not being able to get to their cars to go home, though.

Mercy student Katie Whiteman told News 12 Westchester that night, "They told us we can't go to our car in the parking lot, we couldn't even walk up the stairs to get to our cars."

"I think that they should have [given] us a little bit of warning [that] something serious [was] going on," another Mercy student, Nicole Gill, told News 12 Westchester. "They didn't really tell us anything."

Mercy College's Emergency Response guide, posted in the Mercy website's section on security, does have an area detailing what to do in case of a bomb threat or suspicious package, including "isolat[ing] the suspicious package" and "leav[ing] the area immediately."

Despite any inconveniences the minor event may have caused to students, the Yorktown and Westchester County Police Department followed procedure by keeping people out of the parking area. Law enforcement officials claim mentioning the possibility of a bomb when there is no evidence of immediate threat, particularly in the post-9/11 era, is like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater - causing unnecessary panic and sparking fear, leading to more problems than may have occurred had people been kept calm.

If you ever see a suspicious package, either in the parking lot or in a building, do not touch it and call the police and campus safety from the nearest landline. "If you see something, say something" applies everywhere.

For more information, visit http://www.mercy.edu/safety.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools