« School employee gets $2.6 million check because of typo | Main | Cop says McDonald's workers spit on his chicken sandwich »
Botched fax to bank is mistaken for a bomb threat
A strip mall was shut down and shop owners are a bit peeved. "The women at the bank should have handled it a little better," says the owner of Townhouse Pizza and Roast Beef, who estimates he lost $1,000 to $1,200 because of the lunch-hour evacuation. "She blew it all out of proportion, and all of us business owners had to pay for it." (Boston Globe)
May 31, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
Maybe if you think terrorists write bomb threats in heiroglyphics ...
Posted by: Phranqlin | May 31, 2007 12:54:35 PM
Why in God's name would a bank be faxing a picture of a bomb exploding to their branches? Never mind what the heading should have read, that seems the height of stupidity in today's climate.
Posted by: mickie | May 31, 2007 12:57:20 PM
Oh, come on. It came from the corporate offices. They couldn't pick up the phone and call somebody to see what the situation was before they called the freakin' bomb squad?
I bet the 'suspicious package' was some of those 'Pure Romance' toys from the organist lady.
Posted by: V | May 31, 2007 1:04:44 PM
Why is it that I see over reactions like this, and think 'the terrorists won' ?
Posted by: Joe | May 31, 2007 1:25:17 PM
Because they did.
Posted by: Soo | May 31, 2007 1:31:32 PM
'Strue, Soo, they've got people afraid, which is EXACTLY what they were aiming for. and our govt encourages it so they can keep doing whatever they want without reprisal.
Posted by: V | May 31, 2007 1:36:44 PM
Boston seems to be more afraid and less intelligent about it than the national average.
Posted by: | May 31, 2007 2:12:00 PM
I want to know what was in the package and what was so suspicious about it.
Off topic but anyone ever see the t-shirt that on the back it reads.
I'm a bomb technician, if you see me running, try to keep up.
Posted by: The Asshole Guy | May 31, 2007 2:56:32 PM
Better a bomb threat than one of those ads for a 1.25%mortgage or a $299 trip to Cancun and Orlando.
Posted by: Bill | May 31, 2007 3:52:55 PM
JUST SAY NO to bad clip art.
Posted by: | May 31, 2007 4:55:44 PM
I just hate that we have to live looking over our shoulders every day. Even I, the biggest skeptic in the world (sometimes...all those years in MO.) would have gone with the "err on the side of caution crowd" on this one. Damned Terrorists!8(
Posted by: Upperclass Becky | May 31, 2007 6:32:15 PM
TAG, I want one of those shirts, but I'll bet I'd get arrested in a heartbeat if I wore one on base.
My friend whose hubby just returned from a deployment has a shirt that reads "Sexually deprived for your freedom" on the front.
Posted by: Soo | May 31, 2007 7:12:21 PM
The terrorists have won. They've scared middle America shit-less.
I've always said that the terrorists don't even need to perform a real attack. All they need to do is create enough confusion with multiple threat reports and the whole damn country would shut down in panic.
Oh well. Still far more likely I'll die on the highway than as a result of terrorists.
Stupid people who can't calculate risk are dragging our whole country down.
Posted by: | Jun 1, 2007 6:48:02 AM
anon,
exactly. i believe everyone needs to take a basic statistics course as an adult. and, learn the difference between "chance" and "risk." that is, the chance that something will happen vs. the risk of damage that the event would produce.
for many events, the risk of damage may be quite high, but the chance of the event even happening is so astronomically small as to be fine with ignoring the possibility completely.
Posted by: princessalex | Jun 1, 2007 7:09:53 AM
Okay, I'm an 'err on the side of caution' type of person too...but I can't see that as a bomb threat...especially from the corporate office.
Posted by: T | Jun 1, 2007 8:22:01 AM
t,
yeah. all they had to do was to read the sender's fax number, realize that it's from inside the building (sounds like a horror flick), find out which fax machine it is, and contact someone in that department.
or better yet, GO to that department and show them the fax. the chances are pretty good that someone would have recognized it as part of one they sent out.
investigate before you panic. please.
Posted by: princessalex | Jun 1, 2007 8:29:40 AM
Princessalex - by "inhouse" I believe they meant that the fax initiated within the organization.
The fax came from the corporate office (which I believe is in Charlotte, NC) and was received by a branch in the suburbs of Boston.
Posted by: Kghoti | Jun 1, 2007 9:00:11 AM
thanks for correcting me, kghoti. i generally only skim articles, and thought that it said that it was from the same facility.
anyway, you can do almost everything i said over the phone. if you must panic, do it at the business level before calling in the bomb squad.
Posted by: princessalex | Jun 1, 2007 9:18:15 AM
You, know, mostly, I do ignore, or discount reports of terroristic threats and "bomb" reports, because I think I am becoming more jaded. But every time something happens that seems like it could be real, we all react with just the most minute doubt and fear. So, I don't thik the terrorist have actually won. But they do have us on the defensive. I suppose it's better to be on your toes than have your head in the sand.
Posted by: Upperclass Becky | Jun 1, 2007 9:24:01 AM
What is in the water up in Boston that makes people so skittish? A while back, they started a huge panic when they saw Light Bright cartoon characters on the street. Now, someone pushes the panic button after receiving a promotional fax from their own bank.
Posted by: WellThen | Jun 1, 2007 9:25:30 AM
Umm, I dunno, WellThen...could it be because both the planes that hit the Towers orginated from Logan Airport? The ongoing infrastructural collapse that is the Big Dig? The general nervousness of living in Large Port City on the East Coast?
Nah, probably just the seasonal moping over the Red Sox.
Posted by: Nell | Jun 1, 2007 10:32:42 AM
Yeah, I'd prolly blame the Sox, too.
:)
Posted by: Soo | Jun 3, 2007 2:27:13 PM
Code Yellow
Code Orange
Code Red
Now put your left foot in and shake it all about
Posted by: Ace | Jun 4, 2007 3:50:10 AM
