[PHOTOS] [UPDATED] Multiple Police officers as well as the Lakewood fire Department are currently evacuating the Shoprite plaza after a device was found near the Optimum store. The device, which reportedly has wires attached to it, and strapped to a vehicle, was noticed by an employee leaving work.
Fearing it may be an explosive device, police are evacuating the parking lot.
The County Bomb Squad and State Police are en-route with bomb-sniffing dogs, and a robot.
UPDATE: The device turned out to be a non-hazardous, fake bomb. The device was reportedly wired to appear like an explosive.
so the suitcase was a practice run
Is it possible it was a cable box with the wiring? or maybe phone or internet wires? it is outside of the OPTIMUM store after all…
Hey common sense, glad your not in charge of anything involving our safety.
Calling the bomb squad for every stupidity will eventually make them stop responding due to lack of funding. Just like the CIU with car theft………. People need to calm down!! We are NOT on terrorist lists as targets! There are many other higher profile and federal areas they want before shoprite in little old lakewood!
Lcsw should have a bomb squad to handle these jokes.
i agree with vincent, lakewood has nothing to worry about, no terrorist organization lists lakewood as one of their targets. People just over hype things
hate to break it to you lakewood is on muslim terror targets
I never hear of such overzealous responses to any other town, except lakewood. I fully am aware that lakewood having a large amount of Jewish people would naturally pose an attraction to the islamic extremists, but aside from lakewood being such a target, we have malls, 6-flags, the jersey shore, and other area’s that would amass for a larger mass-casualty rate than just lakewood alone, so i ask why does lakewood sends this type of response almost every week- and no one else?
Maybe its time to fine those found to be careless in such a time as we live in today. Maybe its time to punish people for what they cause. Its costing us tax-payers a lot of money to find out that some drone who yesterday left his kid in the car, today leave some suitcase next to a prominent business or landmark.(and this goes for any race/creed/religion/color/gender)
hey vincent..if it were your family you would think different.its obvious your a kid with a big mouth. this was my co workers van it was attached too. be quiet! dont speak about things unless you know the detail. grrr
Any more comments from the uninformed?
Leave the job to the uniformed.
Stay safe, arrive alive.
Good time to pray for success and blessings for all our folks in uniform too.
why would lakewood be a muslim terror target???
This is a serious threat, but no one jump to conclusions and panic just yet.
With overzealous responses almost weekly, its not a secret that some people with twisted brains would find pleasure in setting off such a reaction with a fake bomb, just for laughs. It depends on how intricate the fake bomb was, and how much attention to detail was used to not only build, but the placement & location of the item itself.
Lakewood having a large population of Jews was, and always will be a target, but we have larger targets as well. That being said i am addressing everyone, every race/creed/religion in lakewood – STOP LOOKING TO THE POLICE TO BABYSIT YOU. Do everything in your power to help yourself, so the police have more time to ‘police’ the town. With every officer tied up looking for your kids stolen bike, its 2 less eyes that could be patrolling and finding suspicious behavior that could lead to a mass-casualty. The police are not your personal assistants, so dont look to them for such favors.
#11 you are right about the police is not the town’s baby sitter.That is L.C.S.W. Job and should be their only job.
Hello….. Lakewood is home to the following; biggest rabbinical college located on the east coast, large industrial complex, minor league baseball stadium, hospital, college university, airport, mass transportation hub, cogeneration station, etc… All of these things make Lakewood a prime target for any kind of terrorism activity by any person or group. Lakewood Police is doing the right thing by calling in the professionals to handle any type of suspected device, item and threat. If the Police Dept. didn’t take these steps and something does turn out to be real and people end up injured or killed you would be complaining that the Police did nothing to protect the public. Good work LPD, keep it up.
Lakewood is considered to be a soft target because of BMG, as well as the large Jewish community. It is better to be safe than sorry, what better place to leave a device like that because some idiot like Vincent, or others that made posts will look at it just like that ::Hey look at that car with wires sticking out of it attached to a briefcase, must be someone returning a cable box no worries!!!::::: and an hour later we watch jacks like you being picked up off the sidewalk in pieces. Be smart and be safe, just like the commercial says if you see something say something!!!!!!! PERIOD!!!!
Mr Late night worker- Do you have reason to suspect al quada is after your friend? Sheesh!
everyone just calm down, when was the last time this scare turned out to be a real bomb? the answer is NEVER, these things dont happen in lakewood!!!!!
This time it was fake, thank G-d. Next time it might be real. Why take chances?
They want us to let our guard down, but we can’t afford to do that. We’ve got to keep on our toes.
See something. Say something.
Here’s a little food for thought. Let’s say an Islamic extremist wants to carry out a Jihad against the hated Infidels, especially the Jewish people because of their hatred of the Jews for creating the nation of Israel. An Islamic extremist with tie to aterrorist organization let’s his beard grow a bit longer, buys a black suit, hat and yarmulke and even a prayer shawl. Underneath his clothes, he has some type of improvised explosive device strapped to him. He walks into BMG to “pray” and when he is in the main main classroom, BANG! he detonates it’s and now we have a mass casualty incident. Don’t be a fool. I know for a FACT that Lakewood is a great cause of concern for terrorist attacks due to one of the largest Jewish populations on the east coast. When you live with your head in e the sand that’s when bad things happen. Lakewood has many potential terrorist targets; BMG, Georgina Court, the Cogen Plant, Blue Claws, NJT. It is very possible. very
Remember people the terrorist started small first they plant a small bomb somewhere to see if it works then they put one under a bus in LAKEWOOD that is headed to NYC and make if go off in a tunnel or on a bridge. Think people think. Lakewood is a major hub to go to NYC, AC, and Philly.
Thank you, law enforcement officer, for the work you do to keep us all safe.
To the guys who think these suspicious devices are no big deal: ARE YOU NUTS? Next time we’ll call you to examine it, rather than asking the bomb squad to put their lives at risk.
There have been incidents where places needed to be evacuated due to suspicious objects, and police had extreme difficulty getting people to leave the area. They must be people like Vincent.
To mezzz. Yes the police are our assisants. After I AM paying them!!
I have to say in my own defense to those who have such wonderful opinions and Idea’s of what happened and how we need to not tie up the Lakewood Pd with stupid stuff. Unless you were there or this happened to you, you should not assume anything. This device was attached to my car!!!! Which my co-worker notice as we were leaving. I THANK GOD for the LAKEWOOD PD, BOMB SQUAD AND OTHER COUNTY & STATE OFFICIALS THAT ASSISTED…..I also thank god for my co-worker who saw the devise….because if it was A REAL BOMB and I didn’t know it was attached to my car….I could have been died as well as other’s around me.!!! Again, I thank god for the LAKEWOOD PD AND sure hope that those of you who think that they are a JOKE….Don’t need their assitance.
THAT YOU LAKEWOOD PD OFFICERS WHO HELPED ME….MAY YOU STAY SAFE!!!
aww what did I say that had to get censored
To: SR Late Night Worker….
Thank you so much…..some people really need to keep their mouths shut. I would like to know how they would feel if they found something like this attached to their car late at night!!!
Ok, seriously, how did something like this cause you small minded individuals to base your opinion on religion. Who cares if its a black, white, jewish, catholic, christian area. That is what is wrong with this country to begin with.
Let’s attach something of this sort to one of your vehicles, and see if the first thing that comes to your mind is what race/color/gender lives in the town. As far as I am concerned that has the slightest bit to do with this situation. You have stupid kids everywhere that think its funny to target a random vehicle, house, or what have you, and scare people half to death. What would you do if someone you loved didn’t show up
at home because someone thought they would be funny. Real bomb or not, are you gonna be the
genious that takes it into their own hands to find out? If so then maybe
you should call al quada and offer your services to them, they are in high demand of suicide bombers.
A big round of applause to Lakewood
Police dept, and other squads!
Oh, and one more thing…..I am beyond happy that my sister, the mother of 2 gorgeous boys, made it home safely, although a few hours late thanks to a (moderated)!
TO AZ GIRL:
that a cute liberal mentality you have there, but not all crime is perpetuated by “kids” looking to scare someone. there are groups of people out there with lots of hate for someone different than them, or that are a certain race/color/creed- so when you have a town thats filled with jews, you need to be vigilant against those that hate jews.
when you have a town thats filled with blacks, you need to be vigilant against those that hate blacks ie; KKK & white supremacists.
and the same goes for any large groups of people.
doing so isnt “racist” or “whats wrong with this country” or divisive. its just being proactive. if you happen to be a girl, and some new group of lunatics start targeting females, well guess what…. let a bomb show up at a female only store, and see how quickly everyone starts pondering whether or not that new ‘anti-female’ terrorist group is behind it (but you can keep thinking kids looking to scare everyone, is whats behind all the crime in this world)