Shoddy Bomb Left Scads of Clues

The botched Times Square attack left police with an unexploded bomb and an unusual amount of evidence. “He left more clues than a guy walking into a bank to rob it without a mask," one bomb expert says. "This guy left everything here but his wallet.” Investigators will now sift through these clues, looking for forensic evidence and information about the would-be attacker's methods and mindset.

So far, so good: The license plate already helped investigators track down the vehicle's former owner. The sloppily assembled bomb's bits and pieces—two alarm clocks, batteries, gas containers, propane, firecrackers and more—suggest the attacker(s) aimed big. "They thought it was the atomic bomb,” a police spokesman tells the New York Times. “They have more desire than ability.”

(More Times Square bomb scare stories.)