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2 trucks in Venice ignite fear of terrorism Misunderstanding leads to street barricades, evacuation of City Hall. VENICE -- Fabio Da Silva and Tomaz Meireles parked their delivery trucks near City Hall, hoping to grab breakfast downtown and stroll to the beach.
But a Venice man saw something different: Two men, who he thought looked Middle Eastern, parking white trucks near the heart of city government and walking away suspiciously. Fears of a possible terrorist plot were ignited.
That set off a chain of events Friday morning that drew law enforcement from three agencies in two counties to the scene. Downtown Venice streets were barricaded. City Hall and surrounding homes were evacuated. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office dispatched its emergency response team. Charlotte County sent a K-9 bomb-sniffing unit.
The report to police came at 8:45 a.m. when a resident, who was not identified, called police to say that he had spotted two suspicious-looking white trucks outside City Hall. The caller said the men changed clothes before walking away from their trucks.
It turns out the men, both Hispanics, worked for a delivery company and had changed their clothes in anticipation of going to the beach after delivering supplies to Venice Regional Medical Center. They parked their trucks near City Hall because they could not find a spot any closer to restaurants downtown.
After police closed off the area around City Hall, Venice police Officer Tom McNulte spotted Da Silva and Meireles walking down Avenida Des Parques.
"I didn't sugarcoat it. I told them right up front," said McNulte, adding that Da Silva and Meireles took the news well and cooperated with police.
The two men are drivers for PDS, a delivery company with offices in Tampa. They had made a stop at Venice Regional in a route that took them from Fort Myers to Tampa that day.
The whole episode lasted about an hour and a half. At around 10:15 a.m., police removed the barricades and told employees at City Hall they could return to work.
The scare touched a raw nerve in this small town, which gained notoriety as the spot where three hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks attended flight training school.
"It's a situation of once burned, twice shy," said Barry Glassner, whose book, "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things," explores Americans' tendencies to overreact to such incidents. "When you've had an incident of a particular sort in a community, it's normal that people would react very strongly to something that seems similar in the future."
At the same time, Glassner said, there's danger in going too far.
"We need to use our public resources well, and to overreact based on prior experience is to set ourselves up not to have resources available when needed," he said.
Dan McGoogan, Venice's interim police chief, called the law-enforcement response appropriate.
"They were ahead of schedule, so the drivers decided to park, said, 'Let's go downtown for breakfast.' That's as simple as it turned out to be," McGoogan said. "It turned out to be an innocent thing, but we erred on the side of caution." From another local paper:
03/18/06Beach trip shuts down Venice City Hall VENICE -- Bomb dogs, counterterrorist units and nearly every available police officer were called to downtown Venice because of two guys looking for a bite to eat and a swim at the beach. Tomaz Meireles and Fabio Silva had just finished dropping off a shipment of medical supplies at Venice Regional Medical Center. There were no spots large enough to park their trucks downtown, so shortly after 9 a.m., they parked on Granada Avenue next to City Hall and Venice Fire Station No. 1. The two of them hopped out and walked back toward a downtown restaurant for breakfast, and then a dip at Venice Beach before planning to drive back to Orlando. Meireles had never been to a beach before, and this was only Silva's second time going to the beach. When they came walking back 30 minutes later to grab their beach towels, there were police cars, barricades and law enforcement officers everywhere. "We'd just finished our job and were going to the beach," Silva said. "We saw that and thought, 'Man, what's going on?'" Meireles and Silva walked slowly around the barricades until they realized their trucks were causing all the commotion. Both wore a look of "Uh-oh," which drew the attention of several police officers, a Venice Gondolier Sun reporter observed. Within five minutes of talking to the men, the alert was canceled and evacuation called off. "As soon as they saw us, I think they knew it was a mistake," Meireles said. Police, fire and City Manager Marty Black all were satisfied with how the situation was handled. "Our people did everything the way they were supposed to," VPD Sgt. Tom McNulty said. "I'm really proud of them." According to Interim Police Chief Dan McGoogan, Venice firefighters noticed the box trucks and watched Meireles and Silva get out. One changed his shirt and then they went down Miami Avenue on foot. Firefighters confirmed the trucks were unconnected with City Hall air conditioning work, and then Venice police were called, according to the city manager. One vehicle was clearly marked as a Penske rental truck and the other only said FDS Trucking with an Orlando phone number. The area was immediately sealed off and all those within a one-block radius of City Hall asked to leave. After searching the trucks, police were satisfied the men were not terrorists. McNulty said he had alerted the Sarasota County Sheriff's Terrorist Task force and called for a bomb dog. "It was a very appropriate call to evacuate the area," said Black, who called it an "overabundance of caution" well spent. There was only one complaint by the city manager. A handful of city employees lingered in the parking lot "gawking" instead of standing behind the barricades. As for Meireles and Silva, they complimented VPD officers and detectives for being professional and kind. "They could've thrown us down on the ground," Silva jokingly said. "We said we were sorry. And they apologized. That was nice." The pair of truck drivers then grabbed their towels and walked down Granada Avenue toward the beach. As the two walked away from the reporter, Silva stopped, turned back to the reporter and asked with a genuine amount of concern. "Are there any sharks in the water?" Staff writer Tommy McIntyre contributed to this report. You can e-mail J.J. Andrews at
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. By J.J. ANDREWS http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/031806/ew4.htm?date=031806&story=ew4.htm |
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