The owner of the "suspicious" white van with temporary plates and a fake police parking placard that forced a shutdown of Times Square on December 30—complete with the bomb squad investigation and neighboring building evacuations—emerged yesterday. And he was arrested! The Post reports, "The van's owner, George Freyer 36, turned himself in yesterday and was charged with possession of a forged instrument"—which is a felony—"Sources said a fake registration was found inside the vehicle."
While the NYPD's bomb squad surrounded the car, according to the Daily News, "A folding table and some imitation Burberry scarves were the van's only contents." (Freyer allegedly gave his keys to someone else to allow the police into the van on Wednesday.) The white van had been parked on Broadway between 41st and 42nd Streets for two days before the cops realized it didn't belong there.
It's believed that the parking placard, issued from the Detectives Crime Clinic, Metropolitan New Jersey and New York, convinced cops that the van was legitimately parked in the congested area. But Police Commissioner Ray Kelly admitted, "It should have been discovered before. We're doing an investigation into why it wasn't discovered earlier."
While Kelly wants to, per the News, "pursue possible civil action against the Bronx-based nonprofit for issuing the placard," Fox 5 reports that the group claims the placard was stolen. Kelly says that the placard has been added to its photos of fake placards but whatever—Transportation Alternatives found out last year that cops are fooled by fake placards.
