T-Shirt Vendor Emerges as Hero

Vietnam veteran doesn't want to make a big deal of it
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 2, 2010 11:02 AM CDT
T-Shirt Vendor Emerges as Hero
In this image taken from video, the vehicle containing a car bomb stands with the door open and red canisters on the roadway in Times Square.   (AP Photo/APTV)

The T-shirt vendor who alerted a New York City cop to a potential car bomb wasn't much interested in talking to reporters this morning. He just wanted to catch a cab home, reports the New York Times. “I’m not going to say anything," said the still unidentified man. "I'm fed up. We’ve been up since 6 am of yesterday morning.” Asked whether he was proud, he said, "Of course, man. I’m a veteran. What do you think?”

The vendor, who served in Vietnam, alerted Officer Wayne Rhatigan when he saw smoke coming out of a parked SUV, and that led to a quick evacuation of Times Square. "See something, say something," said the vendor, when asked if he had anything to tell New Yorkers. AP, meanwhile, talks to another vendor, Duane Jackson, who also noticed the vehicle and alerted a cop. "That's when the smoke started coming out and then we heard the little pop pop pop like firecrackers going out and that's when everybody scattered and ran back," he said. "We dodged a bullet here."
(More Times Square stories.)

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