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Union Square Area Evacuated Over Car With Gasoline Containers

By DNAinfo Staff on May 14, 2010 8:15am  | Updated on May 14, 2010 8:19am

A member of the bomb squad inspected a gasoline canister, which had been spotted in the back of a parked car near union square, on Thursday night.
A member of the bomb squad inspected a gasoline canister, which had been spotted in the back of a parked car near union square, on Thursday night.
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Getty/Mario Tama

By Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo.com Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN —A car with gasoline containers in the backseat caused an area near Union Square to be evacuated Thursday night in yet another case of post-Times-Square-bomb-plot jitters.

A Con Edison employee noticed two canisters of gasoline in the back of a parked car outside the company's headquarters on Irving Place, near 14th Street and alerted police, the Times reported.

The bomb squad arrived soon after, evacuating Irving Place between 14th and 15th Streets, along with two nearby apartment towers, the paper reported.

The area was reopened at 12:45 a.m., after investigators had blown out the Oldsmobile Cutlass' windows and determined that the car did not contain a bomb, according to the Times.

The owner of the vehicle, who had been inside a Buzzcocks concert at Irving Plaza, mowed lawns for a living, which is why he had the gasoline in his car, the paper noted.

Several evacuations that have resulted from false alarms throughout the city since May 1 when a bomb was discovered in Times Square.