A strange scene unfolded yesterday morning at the 68th Precinct stationhouse in Bay Ridge, where a 40-year-old man allegedly walked in and yelled, “I have a bomb!" The Post likens the incident to "the set-up for a really tasteless joke" (the Post editors would know!) but to us it sounds more like the set-up for a really stupid movie, starring Adam Sandler as a fake bomb fetishist who falls hard for a foxy divorced bomb squad detective (played by Reese Witherspoon). At any rate, police "whisked" fake bomb threatener Steven Angelides outside and ordered him to place the "bomb," which was inside a bag, on the street.

He complied, and there were probably a tense couple of minutes as everyone waited for the Emergency Service Unit and the NYPD Bomb Squad to secure the block and determine that the "bomb" consisted of an empty propane tank, part of a lamp and a section of circular hose. Ah Angelides, you goofed 'em good! And it didn't end there—during questioning, Angelides told investigators he had hidden another "bomb" in a blue van parked outside a building located about 2 miles away on Fort Hamilton Parkway.

Police had to evacuate the building and then check the van, but—wait for it—there was no bomb there, either! Angelides was taken to Lutheran Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, and is charged with placing a false bomb and making terrorist threats. For context and analysis, we once again turn to police message board NYPD Rant, where reaction to the incident has been forceful. One ranter predicts, "It's just a matter of time till a REAL one walks in. Station house security is a joke on this job. That's the way the brass wants it. Funny, you can't just walk into 1PP. I wonder why that is?" Another wonders simply, "Why wasn't he shot?"