Container Bob

And then there was “Container Bob,” a legend in port security circles.  A month and a week after 9/11 in the giant Italian container port of Gioia Tauro, which handles about two and a half million containers a year, authorities, alerted by a dockworker (again!) discovered a stowaway within a container that was carefully and tastefully appointed for a long voyage.  It had a bed, a heater, and a toilet.  The man also had a satellite phone, a cell phone, a laptop computer and most curiously airport security passes and an airline mechanic’s certificate valid for Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s Kennedy airports. Curiouser and curiouser, after his arraignment, he was released on bail and disappeared.

Stephen Cohen