Had an odd experience today and it may have affected others in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Was at work this morning when I got a call from my building's managing agent, on the ball this morning, who had noticed police near our building. They talked with the cops and then called me...

Seems a suspicious package was found on 7th Ave in Park Slope near where I lived...with my name and address on it! Cops were called and contacted our managing agent and they contacted me.

I have heard two very different descriptions of the suspicious package: one vaguely fits an old suitcase, originally my step-father's, that my wife and I threw out more than a month ago. I remember taking all identifying tags off it before putting it with my building's trash, but it is possible we missed something. If this description is accurate, then things kind of make sense.

The other description is unlike anything I have ever owned and would suggest that someone put my name and address on a package I have never seen or heard of. So I'd like to see the item and see if I once owned it or not. If I did it is a kind of weird but not big deal kind of thing. It just means someone found what we threw away, used it for a bit, and then decided to throw it away themselves on a corner near where they found it. A typical New York Story.

But if it isn't that suitcase, then it is a much weirder thing that I'd be more concerned about...far more than a typical New York Story.

I get the feeling the cops who arrived quickly surmised it was not a real threat, because the cop I talked to on the phone sounded kind of bored and it doesn't seem like it was treated in a way that made any headlines. So it probably was never really a big thing, but it was an odd experience for me and may well have created a bit of scene on the street when it was first called in.

If it had been found one block over one direction, it would have been next to a synagogue, or one block over in another direction it would have been next to a school. My bet is it would have been treated far more seriously in either case. But where it was found didn't really fit any profile for a target for mayhem, so I think the site, the appearance and the general circumstances did not send up any red flags to the cops. But I still want to know what happened!

Definitely a post-9/11 kind of experience!