Mets honor 4 who thwarted bomb

To rousing applause, four men who were instrumental in foiling the Times Square bomb suspect's plans were honored before Friday night's Mets-Giants game.

Last Saturday, street vendors Lance L. Orton Sr. and Duane Jackson Sr. alerted police to the smoking SUV suspiciously parked near their wares.

Customs and Border Protection Officers Frank Formato and Paul Casquarelli of Massapequa helped detain the accused bomber after he boarded an Emirates plane Monday bound for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Friday night they were toasted as heroes in front of the Mets dugout.

"People have been asking me all week: Were we some sort of heroes? You know, Captain [Chesley] "Sully" Sullenberger, the guy in the subway was a hero. Someone who runs into a burning building: Those are the heroes," Jackson said. "I'm just a guy. Lance and I happened to be in the right place at the right time."

In Massapequa, however, Casquarelli's neighbors were full of pride. Casquarelli has lived there for about five years in a home he shares with his wife and two children.

"I'm still in awe," said Sandra Mammes, a BOCES teaching assistant who lives next door and only learned Casquarelli was one of the officers who pulled Faisal Shahzad from the plane while watching television Friday morning. "I never realized what dangerous positions he could be in."

Mammes, who described Casquarelli as calm and even-tempered, said she spoke with him Friday and thanked him for his work. "I told him I appreciated the job he does even more now than before," she said, adding he thanked her for acknowledging the position he was placed in.