Alert

Alert

: We’re all alert these days. I walk to the PATH train in Jersey City and see a Port Authority employee leading a cop quickly to the edge of a plaza. Reporter — and idiot — that I am, I follow. The PA guy says, “It seems to have a homemade antenna.” He shrugs, not wanting to sound paranoid, only alert. He points to a parking lot behind the station, a real run-down stinky place. Turns out he’s pointing to a big, red suitcase that’s abandoned. The cop tiptoes up to it. I decide I’d be an idiot to stick around. As our President says, once burned is…

I come back hours later and there are the remnants of a police line up at spot. The big, red suitcase is now ripped open and in a dumpster just there.

I wish I’d thanked that PA employee. False alarms are better than no alarms. This is life in — as the New York Post called Jersey City — Terror Town.