Passengers and drivers caught in traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel yesterday had quite a scare when, suddenly, in their rearview mirrors, they saw a small army of men and women wearing camouflage sprinting through the passageway toward them. The group made it all the way to the end of the tunnel before getting confronted, naturally, by members of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force with weapons drawn. It was a pretty quick response time, actually. Crisis averted! Or it would have been, if this was an actual crisis. Instead, it was actually a boneheaded move by a bunch of kids from Florida.
The squad of fatigue-clad kids was actually a dance troupe called Club Envy from Jacksonville, Florida. They were on their way to compete in BET’s 106 & Park segment “Wild on Wednesday” and had been driving for 24 hours for the opportunity. When they got caught in traffic on the New Jersey side of the tunnel, they decided to abandon their car and hoof it through the 1.5-mile passage. Their actions caused the Port Authority to shut down Lincoln Tunnel for 45 minutes of panic (but when they realized what was up, PA officials actually called BET and offered to clear traffic for the kids to make the show. It was too late). “It was terrifying. I was crying,” said Eternity Odom, 16, one of the (apparently talented!) dancers from the troupe. She added that they regretted their decision: “There are a lot of fumes in that tunnel, and we could have passed out or gotten hit by a car.” Or, you know, you could have been murdered by a New Yorker who was stuck in traffic for an extra hour because of you. That should have been the first thing you worried about.
Dance troupe causes scare running through Lincoln Tunnel [NYP]
[Ed: Can I just say that looking through iStockphoto for an image to go with this post was the best way to start a Friday morning? When you search “camouflage people,” not only do a lot of fun images like this one pop up, but also a mystifying series with captions like “Soldier Holding Pretty Woman in Underclothes Hostage,” and “Soldier and Woman in Bikini Standing on Top of Brick Wall,” and “Soldier and Naked Woman With Rifle Waiting in Ambush.”]
