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"I appreciate the call," Maney said. "I was never looking for an apology. I just wanted them to take me seriously.
"I just want to make sure this doesn't happen again," he added.
On July 22, on his way from his house in Vernon to New Jersey to buy merchandise for his leather business, Maney saw a man using a handheld camera to videotape the support beams holding the underpass that crosses Manhattan to the George Washington Bridge.
Maney, who was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, says the man with the video camera was traveling with two men, all of whom he believes were of Middle Eastern descent. When the man saw Maney watching him, he put the camera down and rolled up his window, he says.
Every time the vehicle moved ahead, the man popped out the video camera and continued filming, Maney said.
"This was no tourist thing," he recalled.
Alarmed, Maney called 911 from his cell phone and provided dispatchers with a description of the vehicle -- a red Honda Civic DX with tinted windows -- and the vehicle's Florida license plate number.
Maney said he stayed on the phone with police for 20 minutes.
"We thought the bridge would have been shut down," he said. "What I wanted to see was someone pull over the car. But nothing happened."
The suspicious vehicle crossed the bridge into New Jersey before Maney says he lost sight of it. Maney said he even stopped by police barracks in New Jersey to check on his phone call, but was told the call he placed wasn't in the correct jurisdiction.
Coincidentally, Maney's call to New York officials came 10 days before the Department of Homeland Security raised the terror alert because of threats against specific financial institutions in New York City, Washington, D.C., and northern New Jersey.
Maney said he was disappointed with the results, so he called the FBI New Haven bureau a few days later to again report the incident, but was referred to the bureau's New York office and to Homeland Security.
Days passed before Maney heard any response. On Wednesday, Maney had his first contact -- from Detective Patrick Chagnon, a Connecticut state trooper assigned to Homeland Security under the statewide Anti-Terrorism Task Force Unit. The task force is made up of state police detectives and local detectives.
Even though the incident didn't occur in Connecticut, state police spokesman Sgt. J. Paul Vance said, the state Department of Public Safety's division of Homeland Security assigned an investigator to "gather that information to forward to everyone and anyone who it should."
"We investigate any and all issue that are brought to light," Vance said. "We distribute any finds or concerns to the appropriate authorities."
On Wednesday, Chagnon visited with Maney to take a formal statement and write a report. He said he met with Maney to let him and other residents know "there is an outlet available" to report such information.
Residents can always report suspicious activity to the task force's 24-hour tip line, 1-866-457-8477, he said. Phone calls may remain confidential, Chagnon added.
Chagnon said planned to forward the information he gathered from Maney to Capt. John J. Buturla, acting director of the state Department of Public Safety's division of Homeland Security.
He acknowledged there was the miscommunication among the agencies that "needs to be addressed."
"Obviously, communication gaps are abundant in any organization," Chagnon said. "You just have to try to rectify them as quickly as you can."
Also on Wednesday, Maney received an apology from the Department of Homeland Security.
In its statement, spokeswoman Valerie Smith wrote, "At the Department of Homeland Security, we rely on the vigilance of all citizens to be aware of unusual activity and to report it to local law enforcement. We are deeply sorry that, on this occasion, Mr. Maney did not get the immediate response he deserved. We are currently looking into his inquiry and determining how to improve this process."
Connecticut FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull offered this explanation for a delayed response: "It's common courtesy when someone calls, we try to call them back. It doesn't happen all the time in every instance. Sometime things fall through the cracks, but we try to be professional.
"We take every piece of information seriously, particularly with regard to reported suspicious activity," Bull said.
Maney's experience has also caught the attention of at least one Connecticut congressman.
The office of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District said today he has been in touch with Maney and he will ask the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the issue.
Shays is chairman of the National Security Subcommittee of the Government Reform Committee. The subcommittee is responsible for, among other matters, anti-terrorism efforts
The spokeswoman also said Shays would likely call for a subcommittee hearing based on the inspector general's report. The report is expected to take a broad look at problems associated with calls made regarding reports of suspicious activities.
For Maney, this has been a learning experience. He said if he sees suspicious activity in the future, he won't hesitate to report it, despite his recent experience.
"I will continue to call," Maney said. "This isn't going to deter me."
