They saw something and they said something.Here's a link to a facebook page asking Mayor Bloomberg to take the street vendors out to dinner.
Two Times Square street vendors - and Vietnam veterans - alerted cops that there was something fishy about the dark-colored SUV, officials said.
T-shirt hawker Lance Orton flagged down hero officer Wayne Rhatigan, 46, who was patrolling Times Square on horseback Saturday night.
"I'm not a celebrity, I'm just an average Joe," Orton said Sunday night, a towel wrapped around his waist in his Bronx apartment. "It's nice, but I'm not a glory hound."
Handbag vendor Duane Jackson also noticed the Nissan Pathfinder, and was immediately suspicious.
"Why is this knucklehead parked in the bus lane?" Jackson, 58, of Buchanan, Westchester County, said he asked himself after spotting the Nissan Pathfinder in a No Standing zone just as cops alerted by Orton were responding.
A cop shined a flashlight through the tinted windows.
What Jackson saw next really scared him.
"Smoke started coming out of it, then the pops began - five or six of them," Jackson said. "They sounded like firecrackers," he said. "That's when everyone started running."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/05/02/2010-05-02_times_square_vendors_duane_jackson_lance_horton_alerted_cops_to_smoking_car_bomb.html#ixzz0msLMCB00
Monday, May 03, 2010
Hail to the Street Vendors Who Saved New York, Lance Horton & Duane Jackson!
The NY Daily News has the story:
