Crude Bomb Deactivated on North County Trailway

No one was injuried by a device determined to "have the potential to explode" found on the North County Trailway bike path in Mount Pleasant Tuesday afternoon.

Westchester County Department of Public Safety Spokesman Kieran O'Leary reported the department received a 911 call at 12:01 p.m. from a male jogger reporting "a suspicious device on the pavement, literally in the middle of the bike path."

Responding police, and later the county Hazardous Devices Unit (or bomb squad), "did determine there was a small, crudely made device that had the potential to explode" using x-rays, O'Leary said.

After closing the area of the path where the device was located—adjacent to Route 9A, near the Taconic State Parkway ramp—"they used a water cannon to kind of break it up and saturate it to render it safe so that it could not explode," he explained.

Bomb squad technicians then removed the device from the path, which was closed from approximately 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. yesterday as a result. The Taconic Ramp from 9A south was also closed during that period, though O'Leary said "Traffic was light at that time."

The incident "still continues to be under investigation," he said. "There are detectives who are investigating to try to determine who might have left it there and why."