Video footage from today's press conference on the bank robbery on Newtown Road and the bomb threats which closed King Street and Danbury High School will be posted shortly.

UPDATE 5:30PM: The following is RAW unedited footage of today's press conference.

Mostly, the presser with informational with the mayor and those in his administration describing the chain of events from today. The only interesting point came when WTNH's Crystal Haynes brought up a concern from parents who were upset that they were not notified of the situation via the phone system.

According to the answers to Haynes question, it was admitted that the system failed and there were different phone notification services used during the incident. One from the school system (which apparently failed) and the other from the reverse 911 system. According to the representative from the school, most parents were not notified because their cell phone were not the primary contact number to call.

Looking for clarification, I asked a follow-up question to the mayor regarding who was notified on the reverse 911 system in which he stated people who lived in the area of the incident. Finally, I asked the fire chief a follow-up about the notification system as he was discussing the topic with another reporter.

Another sidebar angle to the story is whether or not the whole thing was a prank (a.k.a., senior skip day). WFSB's Aleesha Chaney interviewed several kids who thought the whole thing was just a joke and asked the mayor about it. I'm sure this will be included in her report.

It looked that the question of the phone system was going to be an sidebar story at some point but as of now, most news outlets are still focused on the bomb threat itself. Total runtime, aprox. 18 min.

NOTE: This video is RAW and unedited. There is some shaking from me fixing the camera on the tripod.



For the life of me, I can't understand how someone wearing a straw hat and a camouflage outfit, can rob a bank and get away on a bicycle. I mean, this happened at the Bank of America over at Newtown Road and it isn't like there's a whole lot of places where this person can hide.



Here's a map of the location where the robbery took place (the bank is highlighted in red). Now, looking at the map, that area is basically a light industrial area with hills in each direction on Newtown Road. Now, if this person took off on a bike, in what direction did he go where he couldn't be found by the police? I mean, we're talking about a guy WEARING A STRAW HAT folks riding a bike on that section of Newtown Road.

UPDATE 6:00 P.M.: Crystal Haynes went with the phone notification problem in her 6 o'clock report and interview several upset parents while WFSB went with the "prank" angle. I have everything tivo'd and I'll upload the clips later. Seems like the phone problem angle has legs since the city admitted that it failed.

I'll post all the television reports in a post later tonight.