Saturday, November 3, 2001

FBI Searches for Ryder Rental Truck Carrying Suspicious Cargo

BOSTON – The FBI is searching for a rented Ryder truck that sped away from security at the Cambridge Galleria Mall after personnel there found drums and gasoline cans duct taped to the floor and walls.

The FBI is asking law enforcement to stop and detail the driver and van of the rental truck. Officials say the possible license plate number is 4789H7.

The incident occurred around 7 p.m. tonight.

©WHDH 7News

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2001

Answers

Boston Globe

Police seek van with suspicious cargo

Driver, halted at mall in Cambridge, flees

By Jenny Jiang and Fran Riley, Globe Correspondents, 11/3/2001

fter days of preparing for vague threats, police departments across the state last night had a tangible menace to chase: A rented van with a cargo of possible bomb-making materials was stopped at a Cambridge mall and sped away before police arrived.

A security guard stopped a Ryder rental truck with darkened windows as it tried to enter a parking garage at the busy CambridgeSide Galleria at about 6:35 p.m., according to Cambridge police.

Guards opened the rear doors of the van and saw six 55-gallon drums and gasoline cans duct-taped to the walls and floor of the van, officials said. But when the guards started to take a closer look while summoning local police, the driver sped away.

When police arrived, they summoned the FBI, which broadcast an alert to police departments across the state. The FBI asked police to contact its terrorism command post with any confirmed sightings of the van.

''Certainly it's a concern, based on the information provided to us,'' said FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkewicz.

The FBI's concerns notwithstanding, one law enforcement official said the van sighting did not fit into any specific threat recently made against Massachusetts targets. The Bay State, the official said, was not mentioned as a target in the renewed alerts that officials in Washington and California had announced in recent days.

But the reports of the van's potentially dangerous cargo had police scanners crackling last night with sightings of rental trucks and cruisers swooping down on any vehicle that fit the description.

The van first aroused suspicion when it pulled into the entrance to the upstairs garage next to the Sears store. The driver and passenger became belligerent and were told to back up out of the entrance to the garage, said Issie Shait, general manager of the mall.

The Galleria was already on heightened alert in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Mall security since the attacks has had a policy of checking every vehicle with tinted windows, said Frank Pasquarello, Cambridge police spokesman.

The men backed the van into the street and waited a few minutes as instructed by the security guard, but took off before the other security officers arrived at the garage entrance, Shait said.

''The security guard did a great job,'' Shait said. ''He did exactly what he was trained to do.''

The van had a Florida license plate attached, but a law enforcement official and a Ryder employee said that it appeared to be a false plate.

The FBI also received an anonymous phoned bomb threat targeting a New Hampshire mall yesterday, but authorities did not deem the threat credible.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

You'd think Ryder could give some info on this. 've noticed a lot of service trucks, not rental though, that have stickers saying they have radio trackers on them.

Maybe it's time to do that for rentals, like that car rental place that issues tickets when you speed.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

The truck may have been rented for a longer period of time, and isn't considered "missing" by Ryder yet. The tags could have been switched, which would prevent Ryder from being able to help out with a name.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

I would suspect that Ryder is checking up on every truck they have in that size. All across the nation, not necessarily just Florida.

sure is irritating how Florida keeps coming up, isn't it?

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

It was Florida plates, beginning with a "w". Apparently stolen plates.

It was all over the news up here today, so plenty of eyes to go looking. I don't think it has been resolved yet.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001