Suspicious hissing package falls from sky too close for comfort to President Trump

Suzanne Russell | Courier News and Home News Tribune

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A white package attached to a red parachute with a handwritten note indicating it was not a bomb fell from the sky earlier this week, less than 20 miles from the president's Bedminster golf club, police said.

The device, which raised alarms, turned out to be a weather monitor, one of six that a NASA scientist released Sunday in the New Brunswick, New Jersey, area, police said Thursday.

Officer Salvatore Fama of the South Brunswick Police Department was dispatched just before noon Tuesday to a solar panel field in the Kendall Park section of the township. Employees there told Fama that the package was making a hissing sound and contained a handwritten note indicating it was not a bomb.

The note also made mention of the president.

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Video of the package was captured by WNBC-TV, New York:

NASA Atmospheric Research Instrument NOT A BOMB! If found, please call [redacted]. If this lands near the President, we at NASA wish him a great round of golf.

It was the second package that had been located Tuesday in New Jersey, and since President Trump was staying at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, extra precautions were taken, police said. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, New Jersey State Police Bomb Unit, Kendall Park Fire Department and federal authorities were contacted to resolve the situation.



The package was what explained in the note, a weather monitoring device which comes down after a period of time at random locations, police determined later.

The weather researchers apologized for concerns raised by the handwritten note, police said adding no charges were filed in connection with the incident.

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