‘Bomb’ tip ignored, man says

A HOMELESS man who found a suspicious device near a Washington Heights hospital Monday night said the first cops he tried to notify laughed and drove away without investigating.

Kenneth Jackson, 68, spied what turned out to be a fake bomb in a bag of nudie magazines near where ambulances dock at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia on W. 168th St. near Broadway at 7:45 p.m., cops said.

“It looked like five or six sticks of dynamite wrapped in black tape with a radio transmitter on top,” said Jackson, who lives in a shelter. He said when he approached two cops sitting in a cruiser nearby and told them he may have found a bomb, they laughed, rolled up their window and drove away.

“They didn’t call nobody, “so I went looking for another police officer,” Jackson said. He found another cop patrolling the area 40 minutes later and asked “Are you a real New York police officer?

“He said, ‘Yes, I am.’ I said, ‘Let me show you a bomb,’ ” Jackson recounted.

The NYPD’s bomb squad was called and authorities put the block on lockdown. Ambulances were diverted to other hospitals and parts of the hospital facing W. 168th St. were evacuated before cops determined the device was fake, authorities said.An spokesman said the NYPD was looking into the claim.

“He took a look at the bomb, and shut down the whole block,” Jackson said of the officer who listened to him. “He did his job.”