Weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey unnerved commuters and forced people to alter their schedules Monday morning - but most, in typical New York fashion, were ultimately defiant about living their lives.
Chelsea resident Lucien Harriot watched investigators carefully remove a bomb on his street from his seventh-floor apartment on West 27th Street Saturday night -- the cellphone-strapped device found by police after another the initial explosion at 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue -- and couldn't help but feel shaken.
"Now I'm realizing this just means that there is no place safe," he said.
Psychologist Harris Stratyner says it's understandable people are on edge but it's important to move forward. If there's a bigger takeaway, it's to be open with children -- to answer their questions honestly, but to always end by explaining to them that they are going to be safe.
That's just what NBC New York viewers are doing: on the NBC New York Facebook page, they said they were talking to their children about being vigilant and aware of their surroundings.
"I begrudgingly went into work today but to stay home in fear is to let them win," Yehudis Giffin Bernhaut wrote on Facebook, who said he works in the city and his kids go to school in Elizabeth.
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"The acts of cowards won't change how I live," Terron Johnson wrote on the NBC New York Facebook page. He said the only change to his routine would be detours between New York and New Jersey.
"You feel so vulnerable and helpless," said John Sera, who lives on West 23rd Street. "They did a terrific job piecing it together and tracking this guy down. Hopefully that's a lesson to anyone who wants to repeat this."
But as streets reopened and mass transit resumed amid stepped-up police presence Monday, New Yorkers appeared to be extra cautious and highly sensitive to any unusual sight. Police in New York and New Jersey said Monday they've seen an increase in calls for suspicious devices, including one at Weehawken Ferry Terminal that turned out to be unfounded. There were seven other similar calls by late afternoon.
"The reality is, law enforcement would rather come out to something and prove that nothing happened than to wait too late for something like this to occur," said Sal Lifrieri, New York's former director of security.
Lifrieri says there isn't a checklist of things people need to look for, but they should trust their instinct. That's how Jane Schreibman found the unexploded pressure-cooker bomb in Chelsea Saturday night, and Lifrieri calls that the turning point in the investigation.
"I looked at it and said, 'That looks like a child's science equipment, they must have thrown it out in the garbage,'" she told NBC 4 New York. "I realize there was no garbage because it's not garbage day."
Mayor de Blasio encouraged New Yorkers to remain on heightened alert.
"At any given point, New Yorkers may find a piece of information, hear a conversation, see something that could very much aid the NYPD, the FBI and our partners. I want all New Yorkers to be vigilant and to provide that information as they get it at any given point in time," he said.
Authorities arrested Ahmad Rahami, 28, a U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, in connection with the bomb Saturday night in Chelsea. They are also looking into his possible connection to bombs Saturday in Seaside Park and Sunday in Elizabeth.
Here's what more New Yorkers told NBC New York on Facebook about how the bombings would affect their day.
