Update: Blame it on Ebay. Mayor Fried’s crudely wrapped package most likely contained computer keys he ordered from Ebay. Some weird paper used to wrap the package prompted Fried to call police.
If you saw police presence on Union Street today, it was in response to a “suspicious letter” sent Mayor Fried’s house.
The Montclair Police Department received a call earlier today concerning a suspicious letter received by a Union Street resident. Montclair Police, Montclair Fire, Nutley Hazmat, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and the United States Postal Police all responded and assisted at the scene. The contents of the letter have yet to be identified pending a complete analysis by the JTTF. The scene was immediately secured and there is no risk to the general public.
This is an active investigation being conducted by the Montclair Police Department, the FBI JTTF and the US Postal Police. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Montclair Police Department at 973-744-1234.
Patch is reporting that it’s Mayor Fried who go the suspicious package.
And just reported:
“I’m pretty sure it’s 99.9 percent fine,” Fried said. “I got an envelope in the mail … it looked to be a suspicious envelope and I called the police. That started the whole ball rolling.
“They are X-raying the package now,” he said. “It has two little mini bubble-wrapped packages in it. And it has a paper in it, like a technical report, on Cryptococcus,” which is a genus of fungi.
“I think it might turn out to be some kind of computer keys I ordered from eBay, but it had the address on the sticker partly crossed out and there was crude scribbling on it,” he said.”
Computer keys from Ebay!
and now they’re reporting this:
“Mayor Jerry Fried received a suspicious envelope on Thursday afternoon and immediately called the Montclair Police Department, which ran tests and discovered that the envelope actually contained two computer keys ordered by the mayor on eBay.”
Suddenly we live in an episode of Sienfeld!
Here’s one of the keys he ordered.
lol!
Patch (Emling I assume) is “vanishing” my comments over there. She initially only quoted a “Patch Contributor” saying someone in the post office said “anthrax”.
I chided Patch for such irresponsible reporting of a rumor. And they just deleted my comments.
Interesting that patch is deleting comments like that but allow the childish “ROC is a bully”, “ban him” nonsense. Maybe it’s the plus and minus keys and now he’ll be able to work on the budget.
There were just as many policemen at the same intersection yesterday. No hazmat but at least 7 cars. What was that all about?
Fried probably received a suspicious package he forgot he ordered from Amazon, yesterday.
Sounds like a cry for help.
You think the Mayor is a little nervous these days?
Think Ms. Emling is a little touchy about criticism?
It was a terrible display of the worst kind of irresponsible rumor mongering over there and she’s airbrushed (re-written without making that clear) the story and deleted the criticism. Say what you want about Baristanet, they would never stoop to such nonsense.
It does sound as if Montclar’s mayor, as in so many things (no one remembers those appallingly self-centered apologias of his the Baristas ran here?), has both overrated his importance and overreacted again to something very low indeed on the “clear and present danger” scale.
Order some piece of crap from someone on eBay and a few days later something arrives at your house poorly packed and wrapped in old newspaper. Imagine that. Unprecedented no doubt. Jerry – be sure to leave feedback.
This says a lot about the mayor’s state of mind. How embarrassing. This is going to haunt him for the next two years. He’ll forever be Mayor Lummox who panicked over his eBay order.
But remember last week when there was a pipe bomb? Cut the mayor some slack on this one. However, I demand that the mayor reveal which keys he ordered. Also, who orders individual computer keys? What’s up with that?
Yes, and the same people who have so little to do that they fill this with their hate would have had just as much to say to blame him if he had not called and something had happened. You do recall the tragic mail bomb in our area and the recent pipe bome? And I am sure he wasn’t expecting all the hoopla when he called to report an odd package.
Get over yourselves and go volunteer somewhere.
Yes, and the same people who have so little to do that they fill this with their hate would have had just as much to say to blame him if he had not called and something had happened.
Oh, jethro. Fill this with their hate? Please.
The mayor ordered something from eBay, then called the police when it was delivered. He did this all by himself, mind you. Rarely does real life so closely follow vaudeville.
Actually, Jethro beat me to it. Had he not called, and had something – no matter how minor – happened, the same comments with a few words added and subtracted would be up chiding him for NOT over-reacting. Oh, something along the lines of being slow to react about the budget and a strange package.
You don’t have to be filled with hate to see through the schadenfreude.
I would have figured Fried orders everything to be delivered via bike messenger.
I might be willing to cut the Mayor just a little slack on this.
But, it’s too tempting an opening to pass up.
When I first saw the headline, I was reminded a suspicious letter I once received. I still have it here. There is no date on it, but I think it was from sumer of 2009. I’ll quote the suspicious part:
“”I am confident we are moving in the right direction and that 2010 will be a significant year for structural changes to make our town more affordable for our residents.
“Sincerely
“Jerry Fried
“Mayor”
schadenfreude?
comedy.
If the mayor hadn’t called the police, he would have opened the package, seen his keys, and thought, “Thank goodness I didn’t call the police. I would have made a complete fool of myself.”
Damned if you do, damned if you do.
LIVE FROM MONTCLAIR, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!