BOCA RATON, Fla. _ Meredyth Capasso could see the familiar look of panic wash over her daughter's face. As mall shoppers cried out while racing for cover, and police in tactical gear fanned out in search of a suspected shooter, Capasso reached into her bag and pulled out something to take the edge off.
Capasso took a bite of a pill and offered the other half to her daughter, who took cover under a desk in a back room of Tiffany & Co. They stayed in their hiding spot, fearful that a shooter would find them inside Boca Raton's Town Center mall.
It was that moment on Oct. 13 that Capasso, her daughter and apparently the thousands inside the mall believed they were caught up in yet another mass shooting in yet another city in yet another venue that has now marred the United States' landscape. They thought they'd joined the ever-expanding network of communities touched by mass violence. They thought that they, too, could possibly die.
That's life in America now. We all live in terror, waiting to become the next victim.
But what happened at the mall was not a mass shooting. It was a false alarm: A balloon popped when a mall employee pushing a garbage cart rolled over it in the mall's food court. Less than two minutes later on the other end of the food court, a balloon popped between someone's legs.
Sunday's false alarm was only the latest to jolt crowds into seeking shelter:
_ In August, thousands sought shelter in New York's Times Square when the noise of a motorcycle backfiring triggered chaos in the streets.
_ In a Chicago office tower a month before, police evacuated the building and shut down several streets after fear spread that a mass shooter was nearby. The original cause of the commotion, it turned out, was a training class.
_ In May, a false active shooter report caused festivalgoers to flee the Rolling Loud music festival at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium.
_ In August 2018, panicked shoppers poured out of Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise as rumors spread that shots were fired inside the largest outlet mall in the country. It, too, was a false alarm, possibly started when security guards may have run into some garbage cans while chasing a suspected shoplifter.
_ A loud noise at Miami's Dolphin Mall two years ago caused people to flee, believing a shooting had happened.
Years ago, the popping of a balloon would have startled people. Today, the sound does so much more.
