The FBI in Boston released no details and only said in a statement that “logical investigative steps have been completed regarding the matters. There is no apparent threat to public safety at this time.’’
Boston and State police also spent much of yesterday on the lookout for a Penske rental truck after a witness reported seeing three men load 55-gallon containers into a company vehicle Saturday night on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury, authorities said.
In an e-mail shortly before 3 p.m. yesterday, Procopio said that the alert had been canceled after the truck was found and determined to be “operating in a lawful manner, carrying charitable items.’’
Neither Procopio nor a Boston police spokesman could say where the truck was found or what the items were. Procopio did say, however, that troopers stopped two other Penske trucks as a precaution yesterday before the alert was canceled.
One person who called in a tip may have been a little too zealous.
A witness reported a man photographing planes near the Fitchburg-Leominster line, according to Procopio, and police arrived to question him.
The man told the officers that he was taking photos of a red-tailed hawk.
Investigators later confirmed that he had “an avid interest in birds’’ after reviewing his personal website, Procopio said.
The 9/11 anniversary and the recent reports of a terrorist threat aimed at New York City and Washington, D.C., may have spurred some members of the public into action they normally would not take, according to James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University.
“It’s not surprising that on a day like today, people are being extra vigilant,’’ Fox said.
“To some extent, our enemies enjoy the fact that we sometimes victimize ourselves, by inconveniencing ourselves, by sometimes [reporting] more than we need to.’’
Procopio said State Police also investigated multiple manhole explosions in Chicopee yesterday.
He said the cause of the explosions is under investigation, but there was no evidence of an attempted terrorist attack.
About six manholes exploded, according to a local fire official who declined to give his name.
