So, yesterday morning I'm driving GF to work and, as we're passing Jeff Davis and Canal, there's a half-dozen cop cars and a fire truck outside Da Whitney bank at the corner.
"What's that about?" asks GF.
"Terr'ists," I pronounce.
Coming back, the cordon had been widened to clear the whole intersection.
Later in the day, I checked the local news sites and aggregators and found, to my surprise, my glib tossoff had been correct. Kind of.
Eight incendiary devices removed from truck in parking lot of Canal Street bank, police say
Bomb technicians safely removed eight incendiary devices from a pickup truck in the parking lot of a bank at Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway Monday, according to police spokesman Frank Robertson.
The investigation began when an officer noticed the item in a truck parked in the parking lot around 9 a.m. Monday, according to NOPD Garry Flot, another department spokesman. The bank employees and nearby neighbors were evacuated as the New Orleans Fire Department and the NOPD Special Operations Division brought in to investigate, Flot said.
The police officer was working a private detail at the bank and was alerted that there had been a vehicle parked in the parking lot since Friday, said Robertson. The police officer has prior military experience and recognized an incendiary device when he opened the truck’s door, Robertson said.
“It had a timer and it also had a fuse on it and it was smoldering,” said Robertson.
As of this afternoon, there's no word on suspects, motives, etc. Was it directed at the Whitney? (NSF fees can be a pisser). The chiropractor next door? (It still hurts, damn it). Nobody in particular? No news so far.
But certainly an odd way to start the week in an otherwise placid and pleasant 'hood.