NEW YORK (WPIX)—
Police evacuated part of a high-rise apartment building, shut down one of the busiest parts of the city and used controlled explosions to total a car -- all in response to what some people and cops thought was a possible car bombing attempt. Now, the car's owner calls the situation an overreaction.Two explosions rang out around 10:45 p.m. Thursday night as bomb squad officers blew up a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. It had two large gas canisters in the back seat, and was parked right in front of Con Ed Headquarters, just east of one the most crowded places in the city on a Thursday night -- Union Square.
A Con Ed employee called 911 about the situation that raised a big caution flag for the NYPD in the wake of the Times Square attempted bombing nearly two weeks ago.
Police shut down sections of 14th Street, Irving Place, Park Avenue South and Broadway in the Union Square area to both pedestrian and auto traffic. The driver of the car, Walter Malinowski, does lawn work for his family, according to police, and for that reason had the gas canisters in his car while he was at a concert at nearby Irving Plaza Auditorium.
Even though Malinowski is the primary user of the car, it is owned by his 80-year-old mother, Doris. She told PIX 11 News exclusively that she felt that all of this was an overreaction.
"Why did they have to blow it up?" Doris said in a phone interview with PIX 11 News. "That's a disgusting thing to do. It's terrible. It's awful."
However, Eric Groom's Nissan Murano SUV was parked just five spaces away from the Oldsmobile cops blew up.
Because of the total shutdown of the Union Square neighborhood, where he'd gone to dinner last night, the Brooklyn Heights resident had to take a cab home and back again this morning in order to retrieve his vehicle.
"Last night, I thought it was an overreaction," Groom said, "But now that I know more of what happened, losing an hour and spending thirty bucks is worth it to keep us safe."
Meanwhile, the car's driver, Walter Malinowski, has refused to talk with the press about the incident while he and his mother, Doris, try to figure out how to get compensated for the misunderstanding.
She said she expects some sort of reimbursement from the NYPD.
"They'd better do something," she told PIX 11 News, "because I think that ]was] a disgusting thing to do."
