Thieves Foiled Much of NY/NJ Bombing Plot

Thieves Stole Suitcase Major Bomb Was Hidden In

In a bizarre turn, officials are now admitting that the second pressure cooker bomb found in Saturday night’s attack in Manhattan’s Chelsea area was accidentally defused by thieves who happened upon it and stole the briefcase the bomb was hidden in.

The bomb was left four blocks from the other bomb, which wounded 29 people, in a rolling suitcase. The thieves wanted to steal the rolling suitcase, and removed the bomb from it so it would be lighter, dumping the bomb in a garbage bag and leaving.

This wasn’t the only case of thieves foiling the bomb plots around New York and New Jersey, either, as two other thieves came across a backpack left near a New Jersey train station on Sunday. They planned to steal it, but found it was full of pipe bombs, and called the police.

The large amount of petty crime, ultimately, may have been a big reason why there were no deaths in the bombing plots, with the substantial bombs either rendered inactive, in the case of the pressure cooker, or recovered before they went off in the case of the backpack.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.