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In the police vehicle was NYPD Officer Peter Cybulski and Sgt. Hameed Armani -- who at the time did not know if the device was a hoax. They held onto it and immediately sped away from the packed tourist area.

\"I looked around, saw a lot of kids, a lot of young people,\" Armani said. \"We’re gonna go, but I'm not gonna have anybody else go with us.\"

Cybulski was holding the device in his hands as they drove \"as fast as possible\" to a secluded location.

\"We were scared. We thought we were gone,\" Cybulski said this morning at a news conference. \"But we weren’t going to put others in danger.\"

After they drove a block and a half away from Times Square, they put the package on the sidewalk.

It turned out to be a red candle and a battery-operated lantern wrapped in tin foil, police said. The object was covered in a white shirt.

The man suspected of throwing the suspicious package was taken into custody this morning at Columbus Circle, about 10 blocks north of Times Square, after a standoff with police from inside his van.

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