How Faisal Shahzad Was Apprehended, Step by Step - An Excerpt

How Faisal Shahzad Was Apprehended, Step by Step
Updated: 40 minutes ago

Carl Franzen Contributor - AOL News
(May 4) -- On Saturday evening, Times Square was packed to the gills with thousands of theatergoers as well as those just out to enjoy the first spell of truly warm weather in New York City in weeks. But by 8 p.m., the area was nearly deserted -- all had been evacuated because of a smoking SUV later found to contain a botched car bomb.

In the heart of the most crowded city in the United States, locating the perpetrator appeared to be a tall order indeed, even for the most adept law enforcement officers and intelligence agents. Yet by late Monday night, a little more than 48 hours later, a primary suspect was in federal custody. And he has now been charged with five terrorism-related counts.

Just how did officials track and apprehend Faisal Shahzad so quickly? AOL News retraces their steps:

1. The Vehicle

The 1993 black Nissan Pathfinder identified by authorities as the intended "weapon of mass destruction" was equipped with a homemade bomb made up of three propane tanks, 152 M-88 fireworks, three full propane gas canisters, two 5-gallon gasoline containers, two alarm clock timers connected to wires and a 78-pound metal gun locker containing several bags of nonexplosive fertilizer. Though apparently activated, the device failed to detonate and was later disarmed by the New York Police Department's bomb squad, giving investigators a "treasure trove" of evidence.

The automobile was promptly removed from the scene and taken to an NYPD forensics lab in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators made an initial sweep and found it contained no fingerprints or DNA. They also observed that it had stolen license plates and that the vehicle identification sticker had been scratched off the driver's-side door.

Yet the vehicle identification number stamped on the engine block and axles was still intact, meaning authorities could use it to track down the original owner. She turned out to be a 19-year-old Bridgeport, Conn., college student named Peggy Colas. Federal investigators interviewing Colas learned that she had sold the car on April 28 after posting an ad for it on Craigslist.

2. Craigslist

The online marketplace famous for its low-key, anything-goes approach -- and infamous for some high-profile crimes linked to its postings -- proved to be instrumental both in the bomb plot and the subsequent investigation. Colas told authorities that she had sold the Pathfinder for $1,300 to a man she described as "Middle Eastern or Hispanic," who had responded via e-mail to her Craigslist ad. Investigators found the record of the ad and were able to identify Shahzad as the sender of the e-mail. Craigslist requires buyers to communicate with sellers via a valid e-mail address, but does not screen for newly created or proxy addresses -- which means that if Shahzad had created a "dummy" e-mail address under another name, the link might have been lost.

3. The Cell Phone

In addition to contacting Colas via e-mail, Shahzad also called her using a disposable cell phone, according to Politico. While Shahzad had tossed the phone by the time authorities caught up to him at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday night, agents used an electronic database to trace it back to his original purchase.

4. The Surveillance Cameras

A recent CBS News report says Times Square is equipped with up to 200 individual surveillance cameras -- including 82 owned by the city alone -- that are constantly "observing every move" pedestrians make. Yet only a handful caught the 1993 Pathfinder as it made its way around the block and parked "haphazardly" on West 45th Street, and apparently none got a clear shot of the perpetrator.

Furthermore, as The Washington Post notes, the initial "person of interest" -- a balding man captured on surveillance footage -- may have not have been involved in the failed bombing. The Post and others have made the case that this exemplifies the limitations of even the most powerful closed-circuit security systems.

But as Slate counters, surveillance cameras did end up playing a major role in nailing the suspect -- just not the ones in Times Square. Instead, that honor belongs to the security feed in a Bridgeport shopping center, which recorded Shahzad taking the Pathfinder on a test-drive before purchasing it from Colas.

5. The Last-Minute Dash

After investigators had amassed sufficient evidence pointing to Shahzad as the prime suspect, on Sunday they alerted U.S. agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, to his possible involvement. Yet they still had to act quickly to apprehend Shahzad, who had by then boarded a plane headed for Dubai. A last-minute air traffic control call to the plane as it taxied on the runway prevented him from making his way to his destination, where any arrest would have faced an array of geopolitical hurdles, if he had been detained at all.