The owner of a prototype BMW that was left parked and running under a tarp on Central Park West and triggered a bomb scare yesterday was issued a summons for idling his vehicle. Martin Birkmann, a BMW brand manager, had mistakenly left the oddly designed X3 prototype running while he and his girlfriend had a picnic in the park. The car apparently runs so silently that he didn't even notice.
Cops swarmed the area and shut down 77th through 81st streets as they tried to assess whether or not the SUV posed any threats, and even considered evacuating the nearby American Museum of Natural History. Both the exterior and interior of the car were covered in tarps, and one NYPD bomb technician had to smash through the back window to check inside, but determined there was no threat upon interviewing Birkmann. The "threat" was initially called in by a woman who was walking her dog in the area, and is one of many suspicious package reports in the wake of the Times Square bomb scare.
