Bomb Squad Investigates Suspicious Package at Citibank
A bomb squad joined Highland Park Police on Saturday afternoon in downtown Highland Park.
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A police officer and his dog survey the area as the bomb specialist investigates.
Photos (4)
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Highland Park Police and a bomb squad from the Waukegan Fire Department responded Saturday late afternoon to a suspicious package left in front of the Citibank at Green Bay Road and Park Avenue.
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Patch doesn't have much information yet, but check out these photos of the different agencies on the scene, and keep checking back as we find out more about what happened.
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irving drobny
11:27 am on Sunday, May 20, 2012
we are truly becoming a PARANOID nation. a bomb at citibank in highland park? are you kidding? get real!
Marleen Lipsch;ultz
12:09 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012
Let's get real??? Ask any of the families from 9/11 if we are paranoid or realistic!!
Bob Levi
2:41 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012
I live just to the west of Citibank on Park Ave. West. An unattended suitcase was left in front of the Citibank sign. Considering the NATO conference this weekend, I don't think the concern was unreasonable. I walked west to Midlothian and spoke to the police officer who was rerouting traffic. As the photo show, they brought to the scene a bomb siniffing dog. This all happened around 4 to 5 pm on Saturday. Luckily there was not problem.
Are we becoming paranoid since 9/11? Maybe not paranoid, but just a bit more cautious.
Irving, How would you feel if the unattended package was left in front of your house?
Our local police and surrounding police departments should be commended for their promt response.
Richard Christensen
3:25 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012
Hi Bob!
Alls well that ends well.
Richris...
David Greenberg
6:03 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012
Levels of paranoia run from one extreme to the other, but ultimately you want to fall somewhere in the middle in order to keep yourself safe. Compare this to being aware of your surroundings when walking down the street at night.
Our little Citibank branch isn't the only location that's been subject to this kind of issue in recent days - there's been lots of issues going on in Chicago (some in the mainstream media, some not). There's at least three ways to look at the "suspicious package" or "empty luggage" issues:
1) An attack. An adversary knows that such items are a trigger, and are looking to disrupt normal operations. Technically, empty luggage isn't illegal, so even if someone's caught with an empty suitcase - what can you do? There's about 100 viable defenses against an arrest. And what are we going to do? Start stopping and searching people carrying suitcases down the street? Once you do that, you've stepped onto a very slippery slope, and engaged in security theater because your adversary will simply move onto some other attractive container.
2) A test: To see how we respond, who responds, what they respond with. Conduct this test a few times in varying locations to look for similarities. Correlate. Compare. And adjust an attack accordingly.
3) Crying wolf: Once this happens a few times, responses are lessened, defenses are lessened - and it opens the system up to a larger scale issue.
The proper response? Remain ever vigilant.