Kenmore Square Scare
Police respond to political pranksters at Bank of America
Several employees of the Kenmore Square branch of Bank of America were trapped inside their office Tuesday morning when political pranksters locked a mannequin to the outside door. The dummy, dressed in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, had a note pinned to its chest that read: “Real Dummies Evict People and Cause Climate Chaos.”
Captain William Evans of the Boston Police Department says he believes the stunt was intended to protest the eviction of people from homes lost because of the mortgage crisis. “I’m sure it had something to do with the economic crisis going on in this country at this time,” Evans says.
Boston police, including a bomb squad, responded to a call from bank employees at 8:37 a.m. and closed Kenmore Square for more than an hour, until they determined that the dummy did not conceal an explosive device.
Evans says that police are looking for the perpetrators and will review tapes recorded by surveillance cameras in the area. “When we apprehend them,” he says, “they will be charged with crimes.”
“I hope this is only one prank,” he adds. “I hope whoever did this, and people watching, realize that pranks like this just cause a lot of anxiety, cause people to be late for work, to be late for doctor’s appointments. Heaven forbid we would have a real emergency here.”
No protests took place on Boston University’s campus.
Additional reporting by Art Jahnke, Jessica Ullian, Amy Laskowski, and Seth Rolbein.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.