|
San Antonio Express- August 4, 2005
Cash left at mosque brings bomb squad
By Mary Moreno
It might have been meant as a gift, but an open briefcase filled with money and left at the front doors of a Northwest Side mosque Wednesday morning caused panic.
Worshippers arriving at the Islamic Center of San Antonio at 5:30 a.m. for the first of five daily prayers found the silver briefcase with $5, $10 and $20 bills. They became suspicious and called police.
Given the current atmosphere of hostile feelings toward Muslims in some parts of the world, Imam Yousef Said said they couldn't just take the money as a random act of kindness. "I thought there was something wrong for sure," he said.
Police also were uneasy with the find and the San Antonio Police Department's bomb squad asked that several nearby apartment buildings be evacuated and part of Fairhaven Street be closed to traffic.
Yousef said the mosque at 8638 Fairhaven St. hasn't seen major problems, but it has received a few hate calls, and the mosque's sign near the road was hit a few times with paintballs.
The briefcase had a partition that made it impossible to see all the way through, Yousef said. And nobody could tell what was lying underneath the cash.
After about two hours, the bomb squad determined the briefcase could be taken at face value — all it contained was money, about $1,600. Residents were then allowed back into their homes and Yousef returned to the mosque.
The money is being kept in the police property room. Police won't investigate who left it at the mosque or why because no crime was committed….
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA080405.1B.mosque_scare.17a07f06.html
|
