Briefcase

A police bomb squad blew up an unattended briefcase found on a SEPTA train near the Lansdale station Thursday night, an agency spokesman said. The train had reached the end of the line at the Lansdale train yard around 9 p.m. when a conductor found the briefcase, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. The area was cleared by police and service was disrupted until the briefcase was destroyed, "just out of precaution. There was no indication there was an explosive or dangerous device," Busch said.

A Philadelphia man stopped for speeding on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge was arrested along with his two passengers yesterday after he got out of his car and ran off with a briefcase that turned out to contain cocaine, police said. Officer Ervin Lucas of the Delaware River Port Authority police said that at 9:40 a.m., he stopped a car driven by Claudio C. Diaz, 40, after seeing it speeding westbound on the bridge. Police said Diaz, of the 3300 block of North Hope Street, got out of the car and ran while his passengers, Renee Williams, 23, and Melissa DeMaio, 19, both of Chester, remained in the back seat.

A man brandishing a knife stole financial certificates worth about $478 million from a messenger here yesterday in what may well be history's biggest mugging, officials said. The stolen materials - certificates of deposit and treasury bills - were not negotiable, but the Bank of England said it was remotely possible that they could be turned into cash. Police said the mugger intercepted a messenger from Sheppards money brokers as he walked through London's financial district on the way to another finance house.

Police are looking for a man who stole a brief case reportedly containing $30,000 in cash in Northern Liberties. Police said the thief took the victim's brief case and wallet before 11:30 a.m. at Third and Green Streets before fleeing on foot. The victim told police the brief case contained $30,000 in cash. Other details are not yet available.

"Let my briefcase go. " - Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), on Spirit Airlines' plan to charge for carry-on bags "To tell you the truth, I don't think I ever ate one of their doughnuts or stepped in one of their stores until I went to their Winston-Salem headquarters. " - Keith Morgan, new Philadelphia-area franchisee for Krispy Kreme "Something is definitely wrong when you need more documentation to rent a movie than to get a million-dollar home loan. " - Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.

For $5,700, Ray Laubert sells his vision of the future, a 17-pound black suitcase, made in Taiwan - slightly larger than the average briefcase and equipped with a key and combination lock. Two, three, four times a week he marches beyond the steel-plated glass doors of his circa-1950 office building near the river, hops into his 1989 Ford Taurus, whizzes by the old Lukens Steel plant, and heads for sundry destinations in the Philadelphia suburbs with a black briefcase by his side.

An unclaimed briefcase in the atrium of the Zion Baptist Church on North Broad Street shut down North Broad yesterday, brought out the police bomb squad, and severely curtailed a Martin Luther King Day celebration at the church. That's because nobody knew the briefcase was empty until X-rays were taken by a lone bomb squad member - outfitted in protective clothing - who entered the glass-enclosed lobby about 3:30 p.m. By that time, the church had long been evacuated, yellow police tape was strung across Venango Street, and a dozen police cars, ambulances and fire trucks sat on the street, their lights flashing.

At Philadelphia International Airport, Tim Harris balances daughter Stacie and a briefcase. Yesterday, they were heading to Italy.

He's a police bomb squad officer who had to examine a briefcase left on a SEPTA bus yesterday afternoon at 13th and Chestnut streets. When a passenger told a man leaving the bus that he had left the briefcase, the man said he didn't want it. That was enough to raise suspicion and the bomb squad was called. The briefcase contained paperwork.

The Cold Light of Day is a product-placement travelogue in search of a coherent thriller. A poor imitation of the best Bourne films, it's confusing and illogical, with plot lapses and continuity blunders. It's yet another fiasco that could devalue Warner Brothers' considerable investment in Henry Cavill as the new Man of Steel. Simply put, Day is a mess Cavill never rises above. He plays Will, a failing businessman taking a distracted sailing vacation with his family in Spain.

A police bomb squad blew up an unattended briefcase found on a SEPTA train near the Lansdale station Thursday night, an agency spokesman said. The train had reached the end of the line at the Lansdale yard around 9 p.m. when a conductor found the briefcase, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said. Police cleared the area and service was disrupted until the briefcase was destroyed, "just out of precaution. There was no indication there was an explosive or dangerous device," Busch said.

Police are looking for a man who stole a brief case reportedly containing $30,000 in cash in Northern Liberties. Police said the thief took the victim's brief case and wallet before 11:30 a.m. at Third and Green Streets before fleeing on foot. The victim told police the brief case contained $30,000 in cash. Other details are not yet available.

Although the contents of some students' lockers may look as if a bomb went off inside, a threat from a suspicious item at a Chester County school Wednesday proved unfounded, police said. At 11:46 a.m., troopers from the state police Embreeville barracks responded to Owen J. Roberts High School for a report of a suspicious item in the boys' locker room. Staff members had located a briefcase that did not belong to any of the students and had been placed in an unusual location, police said.

The headline for an item in "Briefcase" in Tuesday's Business section incorrectly identified the company that a federal appeals court ruled against. It was Merck & Co. The Inquirer wants its news report to be fair and correct in every respect, and regrets when it is not. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, contact assistant managing editor David Sullivan (215-854-2357) at The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia 19101, or e-mail dsullivan@phillynews.com .

REWARD: FABULOUS DRUG STASH! You'd probably expect those words to come courtesy of a Phish concert, not a full-service ad-design firm. But Kurt Shore is especially desperate to recover his stolen laptop. So he's appealing to a higher power for help. Pun intended. Here's the backstory. As Shore was leaving his agency's Manayunk office one night last month, an employee somehow tripped the alarm. Not wanting the police to pay an unnecessary visit, Shore told me, he left his car running and ran back inside to turn off the alarm.

Traffic was snarled near City Hall for about an hour Wednesday afternoon as police investigated a suspicious case found in JFK Plaza. A bomb squad was called to the plaza at 12:10 p.m. because a suspicious gray briefcase was discovered inside a collection of bags stuffed into a black cart. The cart was chained to a sign honoring former city planner Ed Bacon on 15th Street, near JFK Boulevard. Bystanders heard a muffled explosion as the bomb squad detonated the shopping cart's contents.