Saturday, April 2, 2011

Excuse Me, But …

You would think that a suspicious-looking package left in a federal office building would soon have a crowd of demolition experts and sniffing dogs surrounding it, wouldn’t you?
That’s not what happened in Detroit recently.
A private security guard at a building housing the Social Security Administration and the FBI found a package just sitting there all by its lonesome. “Hmmm,” he must have said,” I think somebody lost this. Let’s put it in Lost and Found, and see if anybody asks for it.”
Bad move. The problem is he didn’t have it screened first. So it sat in Lost and Found for four weeks.
“Hmmm,” somebody else must have said last week, “this package looks a little suspicious. Let’s have it X-rayed.” Good move!
X-rays revealed what looked like a bomb. The Federal Protective Service was called, along with Detroit Police who eventually detonated the package … a month late.
But … better late than never?