South Station Evacuation

So soon we forget. When a record gets to the end (and there’s no auto-return on your phonograph) the stylus skips along the cardboard middle. When a cassette tape gets to the end of a side as you’ve got it lodged in your walkman it clicks a little as the gears slip while they try and advance. A CD player, well, the laser just stops, but a whirring or buzzing sound can often be heard if you’ve clicked on the "hold" switch. Your MP3 player, now that’s pure noiseless beauty.

Why is Bostonist taking the time to remind you about the sounds coming from your audio devices? That clicking, ticking, and end of track noise caused an evacuation of South Station today. Only weeks after a bomb squad detonated a gym bag due to ticking (it was a CD player-and the bag may have been evidence in an ealier crime), hours after a shopping cart was destroyed at a Stop and Shop in Bedford, the Squad was out in force today evacuating South Station and surrounding streets because of a ticking noise coming from someone’s duffle. After having their bags ported from the hotel to South Station, Amtrak passengers attempting to pick up their baggage "saw something and said something". They thought their bags had been tampered with (it's still unclear how) and heard a ticking noise as they approached the baggage. After official x-ray of the bag the ticking turned out to be coming from a tape player. Bostonist hopes that everyone, even those visiting our fair city, can come to terms with security so we don’t have to start with the whole random bag search mess.

Photo from TheBostonChannell.com (ABC 5)