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Running Club Members Face Felony Charges for Scare at IKEA Store in New HavenNEW HAVEN, CT -- Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge.
The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.
New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony.
The siblings set off the scare while organizing a run for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide group that bills itself as a "drinking club with a running problem.''
"Hares'' are given the task of marking a trail to direct runners, throwing in some dead ends and forks as challenges. On Thursday, the Salchows decided to route runners through the massive IKEA parking lot.
Police fielded a call just before 5 p.m. that someone was sprinkling powder on the ground. The store was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the night. The incident prompted a massive response from police in New Haven and surrounding towns.
Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city plans to seek restitution from the Salchows, who are due in court Sept. 14.
"You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know,'' she said. ``It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious. We're thankful it wasn't, but there were a lot of resources that went into figuring that out.''
Comments (3)
What's more serious than a terrorist?
Posted by Rowan | September 3, 2007 8:51 PM
Posted on September 3, 2007 20:51
In fact, anybody who is serious, is a terrorist.
I happened to be listening to NPR on my drive home from vacation, and on some local program they were reading headlines from the papers forty years ago -- end of August 1967. The lead item was a US army patrol being ambushed by Viet Cong, and getting their butts handed to them on a platter. What struck my ear was the description of what the patrol was doing before the ambush: They were in search of "terrorists."
Plus ca change, as they say.
Posted by MJS | September 3, 2007 11:05 PM
Posted on September 3, 2007 23:05
mock the gwot !!!!!
Posted by op | September 4, 2007 3:45 PM
Posted on September 4, 2007 15:45