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Ring...Ring...Is Your Refrigerator Running? Oh, And There's A Bomb In Your School
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 4, 2004
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 4, 2004
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Gothamist doesn't know if this is clever or stupid: A set of cousins called in bomb threats in to each other's schools in North Carolina and Manhattan in order to miss school. The first call was to a Warrenton, North Carolina high school; police traced the call to Manhattan, and the Post reports a detective went to an apartment on West 144th Street, where a woman said her daughter could have been the caller. Then a bomb threat was made to a Morningside Heights high school, with the call traced to...yes, Warrenton, NC. The NC cousin, a 17 year-old, was arrested for conspiracy and making a false bomb report, while the NY cousin's case was assigned to family court (she's fifteen). Gothamist understands that kids want to get out of school every now and then, but we think using the Ferris Bueller method of lying - you know, playing ill, saying a relative as died, etc. - works much, much better. For starters, no felonies are involved.
This story is a far cry from the Post's news on September 21 that the city was preparing for a nuclear attack. Best quote, from Graham Allison, former assistant secretary of defense and the author of Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe: "But once a nuclear bomb is in your city, there is very little you can do." No kidding. Of course nuclear threats against the city need to be taken seriously and precautions made, Gothamist feels that some of this "nuking the city" terror is connected to wanting readers to embrace the hawkish Presidential candidate.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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