The woman lived on the street for four decades and at first didn't believe it was a bomb.
The vigilance of one New Yorker may have saved lives Saturday following an explosion in the Chelsea section of New York City.
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Jan Schreibman alerted police after she found an unexploded pressure cooker device on West 27th street, just four blocks from the scene of the first explosion on West 23rd street.
Schreibman, who has lived on West 27th Street for 36 years, told Inside Edition: “I saw a pot on the street. A strange looking pot with wires coming out of it and duct tape around another object. I thought, 'This looks like a kid’s science project that they threw out.'"
She then realized Saturday nights are not when garbage is put out into the streets for morning pickup, raising her suspicion.
The pressure cooker device was filled with shrapnel and similar to the devices used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
A friend called Schreibman at about 10 p.m. Saturday to see if she was okay following the first explosion. The Chelsea resident was unaware anything had happened and stepped outside of her building where she discovered the pressure cooker.
“I realized it was just sitting there by itself. It looked so silly,” Schreibman recalled. “I came upstairs and called and someone came immediately.”
She recalled that a man, not a police officer, from another agency screamed: “‘Run! Get off the street!’”
Schreibman left her apartment and went to stay with a friend.
“I really didn’t think it was a bomb,” she admitted, but said she'd rather be safe than sorry.
Read: Explosive Device Detonates Along Marine Corps Charity Run Route
Police are focusing on whether this is the work of a terror cell operating in the New York/New Jersey area.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday: “It may very well turn out there is a foreign connection to this.”
On Monday, authorities took Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, into custody after a shootout with law enforcement in Linden, New Jersey according to reports.
Rahami is believed to have been seen near where an improvised explosive device injured 29 in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood and where a pressure cooker explosive device was subsequently removed by authorities.
Rahami was also wanted for questioning in the pipe bomb blast in the New Jersey Shore town of Seaside Park Sunday morning charity race to support Marines, as well as pipe bombs in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Watch: New Yorkers Run From Explosion in Dumpster that Injured 29
