Feds Investigate Failed Attempt To Rent Truck In NY Terror Probe

from National Terror Alert


The New York Daily News reports today that investigators are looking into a failed attempt to rent a truck at a Queens truck rental, for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot.

The New York end of the expanding federal probe centered on seven Afghan men who tried to rent the biggest truck at a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9, sources told the Daily News.The size of the vehicle involved, a 26-foot-long truck, suggested the conspirators may have wanted to pack it with explosives, sources said.

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The truck rental bid failed when none of the men could produce a valid credit card. All refused to surrender the identification needed to pay cash, the manager of the Flushing U-Haul said.

A team of FBI agents spent 10 hours Thursday combing through the Queens truck rental business. “We all feel very lucky right now,” U-Haul manager Robert Larson told The News.

[...]

“None of them looked suspicious,” Larson said. “They looked like laborers. Not clean-cut guys, but your average Joe’s.”