Crime

Mystery: Police Find C-4 Explosives in Manhattan Cemetery

NEW YORK — A caretaker doing gardening work at a historic cemetery dug up a plastic garbage bag containing military-grade explosives last year and left it at the site, where it remained until a volunteer told authorities about it Monday, setting off a big police response.

The employee found the C-4 in May or June 2009 after digging down about a foot into the ground at New York City Marble Cemetery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. It contained eight bricks of the explosive, which Kelly said couldn’t have gone off because there were nothing to detonate it. The spot was near a tombstone but not in a grave.

It was unclear how long the bag had been at the cemetery, but “we believe it’s been there for a significant period of time,” Kelly said. He said it appeared to be military-grade explosive similar to the material used in the 2005 London transit bombings but that there were no suspicions of terrorism in connection to the discovery.

The caretaker left the bag on the property, by a fence in the back. “It’s not clear at this time whether he understood precisely what was in the bag,” Kelly said.

More than a year later, a volunteer cleaning the cemetery, a landmark built in 1831, came across it over the weekend and initially left it there before calling police on Monday because it wasn’t clear what the material was. Authorities closed nearby streets as they investigated.

The bricks weighed just over a pound, Kelly said. C-4 is a plastic explosive that is more powerful than TNT. It’s commonly used by the military because it is easy to shape and relatively hard to set off by accident. C-4′s main ingredient is RDX, which also is used in fireworks.

It is relatively insensitive to impact, friction or fire, although large quantities can explode if burned. Even shooting it with a rifle won’t trigger the reaction. Only a detonator or blasting cap will do the job properly. Less than a pound of C-4 could potentially kill several people, and several blocks of C-4, weighing about 1.25 pounds each, could potentially demolish a truck.

Kelly said the material from the cemetery was being taken to the police range where explosives are tested. Authorities also were digging around in the cemetery to see if any more material was found.

“We’ll have a better idea when the bomb squad looks at it, but it has yellow writing on a green material,” he said, adding that’s how C-4 is wrapped today. “It’s difficult to say with any precision how old this is.”

A call to the cemetery seeking comment was not immediately returned. The New York City Marble Cemetery was designated a landmark in the late 1960s. Six members of a branch of the Roosevelt family are buried there, as well as Stephen Allen, former mayor and New York governor.

Police were also looking into two messages that were found in the area to see if there was any connection. One, written in chalk on the sidewalk near the cemetery, said, “I really hope one of you finds this.” The other, a note placed on a police car at the precinct near the site, made a reference to Jesus Christ being kept out of the neighborhood and was signed by someone identified as “Jesus Christ.”

Kelly said there’s no indication to think the three discoveries are linked, but investigators were checking into it.

Neighborhood residents took the scare in stride, watching from police tape and snapping photos, while chatting on cell phones and drinking coffee.

“I wasn’t worried, because everyone was out on the street and you have to think if it was something serious it would’ve been blocked off more,” said Danielle Baskin, 22 who lives across the street.

Comments (27)

  • GEW
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 11:36pm

    I guess I really dont need to post this—but I will–I thought it was a drop too.
    Wasnt there a bunch of stuff stolen sometime back from and Army Base back there in the East somewhere? Wonder how much of that has been recovered or sold? And if this is a part of that?

    Report Post » GEW  
  • msoldano52
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 7:16pm

    Bill Ayers wanna be.

    Report Post »  
  • BoilitDown
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 5:26pm

    Some folks leave flowers. Maybe it was a terrorist’s grave.
    Faster than digging??

    Report Post »  
  • LadyLiberty
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 4:55pm

    I bet it was meant for one of “The 99” from the other story running on here right now… I can’t think of a single muslim in history I would label as superhero but I can think of at least 19 supervillains.

    Report Post » LadyLiberty  
  • Tony Nagy
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 4:46pm

    I think, they were caught and told to leave it there?…. Think real deep about this… Everyone is already dead there(safe)…. Maybe they had a change of heart? and called it into the police to pick up. I‘m wondering if the truth of where this ’WAS’ going to be used will be revealed?

    Report Post » Col. HawK  
  • Alvin691
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:50pm

    Paging Mr Ayres, paging Mr Bill Ayres…

    Report Post »  
  • DagneyT
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:46pm

    At least the terrorists hid their booty in a place where they could not hurt anyone! I‘m sure they’re off somewhere trying to pilfer caps. The guy who found them, and called the cops deserves a reward, and the gratitude of New Yorkers.

    Report Post » DagneyT  
  • Ellie
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:42pm

    I smell a “dead drop”.

    While generally used by spies to exchange secret messages this technique can also be used to separate those that procure explosives or other materials from those that are to use those materials as part of an attack.

    No doubt the detonation caps were “dropped” separately or they could just be going with a shot gun shell packed with the powder from a few others and a model rocket igniter tied to the vibro motor in a one-time use cell phone – all readily available at the local Wal-mart.

    Ring Ring BOOM! from anywhere in the world.

    Check out my friend’s new Anti-progressivism designs with a click on my name.

    Report Post » Ellie  
    • DagneyT
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:52pm

      You sound scarily well-informed.

      Report Post » DagneyT  
    • Ellie
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 4:17pm

      What is scary is being il-informed when the time comes.

      One can not counter terrorism without knowing what and how terrorism can be executed.

      To quote my friend (roughly) : “Knowledge is neither good nor evil. It is the application of that knowledge that makes one good or evil. Not knowing doesn’t make one good or innocent, just ignorant and it is the ignorant that so easily become the puppets of Evil.”

      You can check out his Anti-progressivism designs by clicking on my name.

      Report Post » Ellie  
  • inblack
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:41pm

    They were not planning to blow up the cemetery – geez.
    Obviously a drop-off that got interrupted.
    Were the police too stupid to replace it with trash and watch to see who came to pick it up?

    Report Post »  
  • Taquoshi
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:38pm

    Just for clarification’s sake, the story source line reads AP, so this was a wire story, not one that was generated by The Blaze staff.

    Report Post » Taquoshi  
  • Bob_R_OathKeeper
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:35pm

    I knew the zombies were terrorists too, they just lack blasting cap skills. Semper Fi.

    Report Post » Bob_R_OathKeeper  
  • overtonwindow
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:32pm

    Update to your story…C-4 is just a code word for something else.

    Report Post »  
  • missmarie
    Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:26pm

    Update to your story needed – the worker found the C4 last May or June, a volunteer turned it over to police, no mechanism for explosion found, only the C4.

    Report Post » missmarie  
    • John 1776
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:44pm

      The key here is that this sounds like a “hand-off.” Someone left it there for someone else to pick up and put to use. Had they not found this by accident, the “pickup” person would have retrieved the bag and that would have been the person that fashioned the bomb. By this time, we would have been reading in the paper about the “major attack” that had happened. Thank God they happened upon it when they did.

      Report Post » John 1776  
    • Robert W
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 4:22pm

      Its getn scary out there folks. Be vigilant.

      Report Post »  
    • Onward2Victory
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 5:20pm

      Yep, definitely a dead drop. The worker found it before the second party was able to retrieve it.

      Report Post »  
    • FreedomOfSpeech
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 7:47pm

      When I was a kid, my friend’s older brother came back from the Marines and blew up the neighborhood treehouse with this stuff. It was awesome. The whole tree went down.

      Obama burns books like the Nazis did.

      Report Post » FreedomOfSpeech  
    • snowleopard3200
      Posted on October 11, 2010 at 11:20pm

      We lucked out this time indeed, I tell people that if you see something that your gut tells you is out of place; tell the police about it, even if just reporting it as suspicious.

      http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm (mixed art)

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • George Washington
      Posted on October 12, 2010 at 4:12pm

      Someone was just trying to bust a few of his or her friends out of their graves. When he or she arrived at the cemetary, the hapless individual realized that the necessary primer cord and blasting caps were forgotten at home. Once home, our friend saw that it was almost 5:00 PM, turnrd on the T.V. to watch Glenn Beck and, forgot about the original mission. There you have it. Now you know. Moral of the story? Buy a battery powered portable T.V. and, don’t leave home without it.

      Report Post »  

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