You know paranoia over potential bomb scares are at an all-time high in New York when a camouflaged BMW X3->ke255 was mistaken by frightened New Yorkers for a car bomb after the SUV was left running just outside the Museum of Natural History.

What these seemingly clueless New Yorkers failed to realize was that the SUV was merely a prototype of the new X3, which was being taken for a quick test drive along Manhattan's Upper West Side. Nonetheless, the paranoid New Yorkers decided to alert the NYPD of the supposed 'car bomb', who then decided to shut down Central Park West to investigate the vehicle.

After careful investigation, which included talking to BMW Executive Martin Birkmann, who promptly informed them that the camouflaged X3 was his and he mistakenly (silly, silly man) left the engine running just outside the Museum of Natural History, the NYPD determined that there was no imminent threat to the new X3.

While we can't fault those who thought the X3 was a car bomb given all the bomb scares happening around the city lately, we figured that they would have at least known what a test car looks like, even if it's covered in a considerable amount of camouflage.

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