A New York City hotel housekeeper has been hospitalized after coming into contact with an unidentified white powder inside a midtown Manhattan hotel room.
Police claim the woman was cleaning a room at the Park Hyatt Hotel on West 57th Street when she discovered a “white powdery substance” near the bathroom sink and began feeling dizzy and nauseous around 1:20 p.m.
The FDNY responded and swabbed surfaces within the room. After testing the powdery substances, possible traces of an explosive substance was detected.
Assistant Chief James McCarthy said at a press conference, “The NYPD bomb squad and the FBI then responded to the hotel and evacuated the entire eleventh floor as a precaution and collected their own samples from inside the room.”
“Their tests found no evidence of a potentially hazardous material and investigators believe the FDNY’s initial test was a false positive,” McCarthy added.
However, police later took a man into custody that they believe is behind the mysterious powder.
McCarthy said, “The suspect has 16 prior arrests for low-level crimes and we have evidence showing that he snuck into the hotel room after a family had checked out Sunday morning and stayed overnight. The man is believed to have picked up a hotel card key to the room that a family member had dropped. He swiped into the room at 8:30 p.m. Sunday and left at 10:30 a.m. the next morning.”
It appears that the unidentified suspect has been known to trespass at hotels.
“I want to stress to all New Yorkers and visitors that there’s no credible threat against the city at this time,” McCarthy said Tuesday night.
