PHOTOS & VIDEO: (Video updated 7:55 p.m.) Multiple agencies including Hazmat, Special Ops Units, Sheriffs and other agencies are currently investigating a bomb threat to a building at Industrial Park on Prospect Street, as the Lakewood Fire Department, EMS, Lakewood First Aid and Hatzolah stand by. Several neighboring buildings have been
VIDEO
evacuated while emergency personnel investigate.
It all began approximately one hour ago when an employee called police after finding a white powder-filled envelope demanding money, and which may have indicated that there was a bomb on the premises.
We will bring you up to date on all further developments. Photos and videos will be posted soon.
Update 5:25 p.m. The Hazmat and Bomb Squad have cleared the building. The powder found in the envelope turned out to be Baking Soda and no bomb was found in the building.
Shortly after the first Officers arrived on scene, Officers Jason Yahr, Mike Ruez, Erik Menck and Mathew McKee entered the building with special gear.
Upon exiting the building, Officer Menck was taken to KMC for low blood pressure.
Chaveirim members ‘Ace’ Klughaft and others, assisted at the scene providing cold water for the emergency personnel working under the extreme weather conditions.
Blue Ribbon fruit store brought boxes of individually packaged pre-cut fruit for the emergency workers as well.
The incident remains under investigation. The FBI is on the scene as well.
and we want to get rid of out ems and police? are we crazy? do we want to leave this in the hands of new out of school emts? this isnt about we have hatzolah or not. its about all of us????????
whats the smell of fire is it related1
y isnt anyone commenting?? its crazyish
I bet Ed hornak was busy ripping down eruv’s during this potential disaster
can we get any more details as to what happened. From the pictures it looks like it was a very nice parade of all the emergency vehicles. And of course a very nice party. Boruch Hashem!
The fire smell is from the 2 forest fires burning. One in southern Ocean County and the other in the woods Near Ft Dix. It is not related to anything in the area..the southern OC fire is under control but will be smoldering for days..
Now that answers why all those emergancy vehicles were flying down the 9 this afternoon!!!
Looks like i missed a party..
wears the video
To # 9 . Video will be corrected in a few moments.
Why won’t you post my comment about officer Yahr?
i am very impressed with how well our emergency personnel responded and handled the situatuion. i was there and not only did the police officers put on those silver suits but i do believe i saw and EMS guy put one on..I commend these people for risking their lives even after you tried to disband there dept. way to go lakewood POLICE, FIRE, EMS, OEM, HATZOLAH & OTHE RESPONDERS FROM OUT OF TOWN..
Was hershal there?
This story is sooooooo Random . Whatssup with the fruit and faiinting party over some baking soda? chill everyone this aint San Francisco!
Of course Hershel was there. In spirit. What Hershel has done to this town is amazing. Now, everythinh that happens in town will be judged by how much better it would have been if Hershel would have won the election.
(I know TLS wont publish this comment)
Ace way to go again
thanks for that thoughtful spread !!
im sorry to say that as someone who was evacuated the lpd did a horrible job we stood in the heat for 3 hours being yelled at by and not toled whats going on you work for us not the other way around you should be fired to all the other officers that didnt care to make sure we were ok you should apologies and maybe lakewood should just give a crash course on common courtesy there are no words to describe what we went through without water in 100 degree weather
Number 17 …not police responsibility…get a life…obviously you got yelled at because you probably were not doing what you were told. Secondly, ems, hatzolah etc should have been taking care of people who were standing there. Or better yet you should have left. Plus until everything is over and secured, it’s none of your business what’s going on. Sure next time before the police make sure there is no actual threat, they should stop what they are doing just to make sure you are ok. Very self centered indeed.
#17 Why did you just not go home so instead of yelling at people trying to see whats going on the police could have taken care of the threat at hand. Could you not figure out that it was something big and needed their attention. I know it is hard to figure out the obvious sometimes.
#17 – since we were there, you must have been one of the few that just did not listen, there was water in containers and bottles given to many of the people. I even saw several of your people sitting under the tent from one of the fire trucks. I also beleive many were under the awnings to a few of the buildings. I guess you just did not observe all that.
Thanks for only thinking about you
#17. Do you think you are that important that police officers should stop and talk to you rather than handling a possible life threatening situation that could have affected hundreds of people? If you want to chit chat in a police maneuver talk to the person next to you and. Let the professionals do their job. You are certainly an inconsiderate person if ypu believe everything should drop whatever they are doing just to talk to you. What were you thinking?
Great to see such a wonderful response from all agencies involved, and all those training sessions in those funny silver suits that we will never wear paid off. From the videos and great pics from TLS i could see many volunteers on scene lending a helpful hand. Sad I did not see the Jr Liasion there helping out. And to # 17, during a time of crisis, yes white powder and a bomb threat would have to be treated seriously and people evacuated and told to go home, Given water, shelter and yet you complain because no one in person told you , or explained it at your level of a common person. So don’t bad mouth the police or ems people. Did you know ( of course you did) there are at least 2 schools nearby??? and hundreds of workers and residents in that area.
Kudos to all who were there…job well done
well, what was the outcome? Did they find anything suspicious? Many of these threats are idle ones, just to annoy people and waste time and money.
there will always be people like#17 who think they are more important than everyone else ~~ #17 you obviously did not listen to what you were being told to do LPD thanks for a job well done !!
We were not allowed to leave–there was absolutely no water except for the one the police officer sitting in his air conditioned car was drinking. We were on the opposite side of the building (on Summer Ave.) where we were yelled at to get out of our cars and run across the street. We wanted to leave!! We could NOT!! There was never anyone offering us water. We had to sit on the curb and not move. At least the people behind our building were offered water and tents. Not us at all!!!!
All the people who are bashing #17 – You obviously were not there. I work ina nearby building in the industrial park, and nobody came to our office to warn us to stay indoors. I had to leave, so I walked out the back door, and saw, from inside the driveway that there was a commotion, and the exit was blocked. But before I could go back to my office, some arrogant guy in a uniform started yelling at me that I wasn’t allowed to be there, and made me come wait in the sequestered area. He did not explain why. I had not been exposed to anything, and they sat me down next to all the people who had been in the room with the letter.
I, and several others in my position, waited and waited, but nobody gave us information. Hatzolah and Chaverim also had no idea what was going on. The people in the roped off area wondered how it was that we had to be isolated, while all of the emergency personnel were meandering unprotected around in the same places that we had been pulled out of. The whole thing made no sense, but I didn’t want to bother any emergency personnel, especially since the guy who pulled me in was so belligerent and self assured.
After about an hour and a half, during which I witnessed one woman being carted off on a stretcher, several elderly people growing fainter and fainter, and lots of self important jiggering by people in various uniforms, they started disinfecting people. Somebody came over and asked if I was being disinfected. I said, I don’t know. He asked if I had been in the building. I said no.
“Well, you’re not allowed to be here,” he said. You have to go outside the restricted area.” I didn’t know whether to listen to the guy who made me stay in the sun for an hour and a half, or the guy who didn’t let me stand there any more, so I asked a hatzolah guy, who directed me to an official looking fellow, who said that I could leave.
This morning at work, the mailperson THE MAILPERSON who presumably delivered the letter in question, said that she had found out about it only this morning.
In conclusion, while this may have been lots of fun for hatzolah and chaveirim and the bomb squad and the scoop and the Hazmat unit, some of whom wait around all day for something interesting to happen, it was not fun for the people who were treated poorly, who had to wait in the sun on a 100 degree day, and who were not informed at all of what was going on.
The truth is, if anything, I guess this teaches me how I should react to comments on blogs. I have no complaint with anything that any particular group did, except that presumably their goal is a good job, and that was certainly NOT done.
But all the people who are judging poor #17 with out having any clue what actually happened, because you think it’s cute to say “LPD”, if you have no clue, just say nothing.
what an overreaction by various law enforcment agencies and a waste of tax dollars too.
What about the nearby schools? Why weren’t they evacuated? They might not have been in the Excel Business Park but it is still too close for comfort
well number 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30….if they emergency personnel had NOT made a fuss and it turned out to be a real bomb, then you would be the one crying that nothing was done and no one cared..etc. It is MUCH better to over react than to under react. Enough said.
Ace keep up the good work!!!!!
There are too many meshugenes out there who send some ordinary non toxic white powder in envelopes and cause bomb scares, causing a lot of distress and havoc. These people are not innocent pranksters, but malicious individuals who should be prosecuted and incarcerated under the law when they are caught. They should be taken seriously, not because of their worthless threats, but, to deter others from doing the same nonsense. If they are caught and given a maximum sentence maybe they’ll deter others from doing the same.
Number 32: There’s really no point in going back and forth on this. There were dozens of cops and emergency personnel walking around chatting, looking important, etc. This was not an instance where in the mad rush to secure the area, people were treated brusquely. The guy who dragged me and others into the cordoned off area and had no time to explain or ascertain if it was necessary was not going door to door to warn people to stay inside or ask if they saw suspicious things. He caught up with his buddies, had a plate of fruit from Blue Ribbon, yelled at a few other people, and in general had a blast. It didn’t even occur to him, or the FBI, or the Hazmat unit, or Chaverim, or Blue Ribbon Fruit Store, to sequester the mail woman. Meanwhile, I, and poster 17 and 26, and several older adults waited and waited and waited and waited. And in the end I was told that it wasn’t necessary and had never been necessary. And then when someone mentioned it, he was jumped on by a bunch of sanctimonious posters who weren’t there and don’t know what happened.
#35.. In response to your previous post where you said you had not been exposed to anything…HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? You don’t. That’s why you were detained, so in the event after they found out what the substance was, and if it was anthrax, you or anyone else would not be spreading it to the rest of the community. And then you would have all been de-contaminated and given proper medical treatment. Anthrax can become air-born and circulate through the building’s ventilation system, therefore exposing you to it. So until they confirmed that it was anthrax or not…you don’t know if you were exposed to anything. You should do yourself a favor and read about anthrax and how it spreads and how long it can take for symptoms to manifest.
chaim you are right on the money! you can be treated like a human being even in an emergency situation. they should give courses on that to all emergency personel. having a radio doesn’t make you more privileged to a drink!
you can’t eat or drink anything if you may have been exposed to hazardous materials like anthrax, so technically the people who may have been exposed should never have received water or food, but they should have been taken out of the heat somewhere maybe into one of the warehouses