Apparently the work Ahmed Mohamed, AKA Clock Boy, did by convincing people that what looked like a bomb could be a fake has created a subset of people who think objects that look like bombs might be harmless enough to touch.
The latest case in point: Jane Schreibman, a Manhattan photographer, heard the blast from the first explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood Saturday night, then saw a pressure cooker with wires coming out of it into what looked like a cellphone, yet thought the pressure cooker was a science experiment.
Schreibman told The New York Post she had left her home on 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues at roughly 10 p,m. Saturday night after she heard about the first Chelsea explosion. She stated, “I had just taken maybe 15 steps from my front door, and I saw a pot on the side of the road. It looked weird, and I thought it was a kid’s science experiment, with wires coming out of the pressure cooker every which way. I thought someone was throwing it out.”
Schreibman, 66, admitted:
I had heard the explosion, but I thought it was thunder. But I just thought it was going to rain, and I forgot about it. The vision of the pot stayed in my mind, and I decided to take another look at this strange object. It had duct tape, and wires going into the cellphone or remote of some sort. But I couldn’t tell because it was all wrapped up in tape. The remote pointed into a white plastic bag. They’re always saying if you see something suspicious, you should call, so I did.
After she called 911 from her home phone, she went outside her apartment to watch for them. She said, “A man, I guess he was a detective, saw me, and he shouted ‘RUN!” She ran to a friend’s house, but returned to her home every few hours to check on her cat.
At 3 a.m. Sunday, she finally returned home for good.
Even after the experience, Schreibman insisted, “It was still such a weird thing. I can’t believe it was really a bomb.”