Four tubes of toothpaste responsible for bomb scare in Weehawken: cops

Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 3:28 PM
By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal

Four tubes of toothpaste were detonated by the Jersey City police bomb squad yesterday after they were mailed to a township resident in what appeared to be a suspicious package.

Four tubes of toothpaste were detonated by the Jersey City police bomb squad yesterday after they were mailed to a township resident in what appeared to be a suspicious package, officials said.

At 4:30 p.m. a package from India with a hand-written address label was delivered to the concierge at 600 Harbor Blvd., Weehawken Public Safety Director Jeff Welz said.

When the resident saw the package he told the concierge he knew no one in India and was not expecting anything from that country, Welz said, adding that police were called.

Weehawken police responded, as did North Hudson Fire and Rescue and the Jersey City Police Department's Emergency Services Unit Bomb Squad, Welz said. The package was X-rayed and found to contain four tubes of some kind before it was loaded into a "bomb pod" and hauled away, Welz said.

The package was destroyed using an explosive charge and the tubes were found to contain an inert substance which appeared to be toothpaste or some type of tooth cream, Welz said.

Welz said of the response that, "It was the proper thing to do in light of all the circumstances."