Toy Grenade Prompts Bomb Scare Near Ground Zero
Authorities temporarily evacuated the 44-story World Financial Center after the novelty item was discovered during a routine security check.
| Posted Thursday, April 12, 2012, at 1:48 PM
Photo by Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images.
A Manhattan skyscraper near Ground Zero was temporarily evacuated Thursday morning after a security guard discovered a suspicious-looking item that turned out to be only a novelty toy grenade.
Reuters reports that authorities evacuated the 44-story World Financial Center at around 11 a.m., shortly after a security guard discovered the item when the postal package it arrived in underwent an X-ray screening. Police say that, upon further investigation, it turned out the item in question was mounted on a plaque that read "Complaint Dept. Pull Pin."
The building, home to several big name financial firms and one of a cluster of towers west of Ground Zero, was severely damaged from falling debris during the 9/11 attacks.
Authorities began allowing people to return to their offices in the building early Thursday afternoon after confirming that the toy posed no danger.
