Explosives Found at Manhattan Cemetery

Eight sticks of military-grade explosives were found Monday at the New York City Marble Cemetery in the East Village of Manhattan.

NEW YORK (AP/CBS 2/WCBS 880/1010 WINS) – Police say an employee doing gardening work dug up a garbage bag containing military-grade explosives at a historic Manhattan cemetery last fall but left it at the site. It remained there until a volunteer told authorities about it on Monday.

The C-4 plastic explosive is more powerful than TNT. It requires a detonator, or cap, to explode and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told WCBS 880 that none was found.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the worker dug up the bag at New York City Marble Cemetery last year but left it sitting near a fence.

“I’m not certain if he knew what was in the bag, but he [took] the bag, [put] it next to a tree and all indications are that the bag stayed at that location up until yesterday,” Kelly said.

A volunteer cleaning up over the weekend found it, and initially left it there before informing police Monday morning.

CBS 2′s Derricke Dennis reported that near the scene, police also made some puzzling discoveries: a message written in chalk on the sidewalk saying “I hope you find this.”

Police also found a note on a police car at the 9th Precinct stating “stop putting Christ on 2nd Street.”

Kelly said the Police Department is not certain of the significance of either statement as they tried to determine if the notes were connected to the discovery of the explosives.