Telefacsimile: Technology of Terror
It's been too long since we've had a good bomb scare from the bay state:
A faulty bank fax printed a message that was misinterpreted as a bomb threat Wednesday, leading authorities to evacuate more than a dozen neighboring businesses and a day care center.
The branch manager of the Bank of America called police about 10 a.m. after receiving a fax containing images of a lit match and a bomb with a fuse, bank spokesman Ernesto Anguilla said.
But text explaining the fax was an internal bank promotion failed to transmit. The missing text included the phrases "The countdown begins" and "Small business commitment week June 4-8," according to a copy circulated by police.
"The fax machine malfunctioned, so a partial image came through that looked somewhat suspicious," Anguilla said.
All dangerous criminals fax clip art to their targets beforehand. And rob banks wearing black and white stripes, dragging off wads of money in dollar-stamped bags.
This seems as good a time as any to abolish the Small Business Administration.
