Los Angeles-A stolen cross-country transport rig at first believed carrying either 5 or 10 tons of fertilizer – possibly even ammonium nitrate – touched off a Los Angeles Police Dept. alert that lasted several hours May 20, according to police officials. “Something like this always sends up a red flag, particularly with the Oklahoma City experience,” reported LAPD spokeswoman Karen Smith. She said the media also stirred things up with reports on radio and television and on the Internet declaring “10 Tons of Fertilizer Stolen at Atwater Village – No Need to Panic;” “5 Tons of Fertilizer Stolen with Big-rig Truck – Terrorism Not Suspected” and finally “Police Say Hijacked Rig Was Carrying Vacuums – Not Fertilizer.” Smith added, “I can’t say we went on a full tactical alert, but it did raise our concerns.” She said the driver, out of Texas heading for northern California, parked the transport that afternoon in an industrial area near Griffith Park and Glendale and found it gone when he returned five hours later. According to Smith, after alerting police he provided the wrong information on the cargo by assuming he was carrying bagged fertilizer to a Home Depot in northern California just as he had on several previous trips. Police found the truck around midnight 20 miles away in Carson, but in the meantime double-checked on the cargo with the shipper and Home Depot to find that instead of fertilizer the truck carried 28 pallets of shop vacuums. The vacuums were still missing at last report.
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