‘BLAST’ FROM PAST
Time-capsule ‘bomb’
Flatiron hardhats dug up a giant “missile” Wednesday afternoon on their job site — and were tripping over their lunch pails to get away from it.
The NYPD’s Bomb Squad and Emergency Service Unit raced to the scene, fearing the worst. But what they discovered could cause only a disco inferno.
The missile was a time capsule created by the since-shuttered West 21st Street hot spot Danceteria, where celebs like Madonna used to party. “It looked like an old World War shell, maybe about 5 feet long,” a police source said. “They thought it was a real bomb and it sent everyone into a panic.”
John Argento, who used to own the nightclub, said he had to convince the Bomb Squad’s commander that it wasn’t an actual explosive.
“I said, ‘ Do I need a lawyer?’ and he said, ‘I don’t think so,’ ” Argento said.
“I was trying to convince him it wasn’t a bomb. It’s just a dummy we bought at the Army-Navy store on the west end of Canal.”
Construction workers dug up the capsule at around 12:20 p.m. where the club, which closed in 1986, used to stand.
Amid the confusion, cops shut down the block, forcing some workers in the area to evacuate their buildings.
“We only had 2 minutes to evacuate our building. Bomb scare on 21st between 5th and 6th,” Alexis Todd tweeted.
Argento, who’s now the managing director of Surf City Beach Bar in Jersey City, said he dreamed up the capsule idea with Danceteria promoter Rudolph Pieper.
“We made an announcement that we’d be doing a time capsule for the people of the future so people would know what was happening at Danceteria,” Argento said, saying the prop was filled with Rubik’s Cubes and other ’ 80s items.
They buried it in an alley — and soon forgot about it.
“It wasn’t a serious time capsule,” Argento said. “We knew it wasn’t gonna last 10,000 years. We didn’t think much of it.” Additional reporting by Shawn Cohen