MAIL SCARE
Envelope with white powder at Harborside

Thursday, October 23, 2008
By TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

An office of the U.S. Department of Treasury in Jersey City received a envelope containing a suspicious white powder yesterday morning, officials said.

The mailing matched similar envelopes that have been arriving at offices around the country in recent weeks, including one yesterday at the New York Times, officials said.

The envelope at the Office of Thrift Supervision on the 16th floor of Harborside Financial Center Plaza 5 was first reported at 9 a.m., they said.

Emergency responders secured the envelope for testing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials said. A Jersey City fire official confirmed it contained a while powdery substance.

The Jersey City Fire Department's Hazmat Unit tested the air at the office and those tests came back negative, officials said.

In response to similar envelopes sent elsewhere, a department-wide e-mail had alerted the government office to keep an eye out for suspicious envelopes and anything out of the ordinary, police said.

A mailroom worker found the envelope, which matched the description provided in that e-mail, according to police, and the regional manager called police and the FBI.

Building officials had no comment. Inquiries directed to the Office of Thrift Supervision were not returned.

More than 45 envelopes similar to the one found in Jersey City have been mailed to financial institutions in at least 11 states, according to an FBI press release.

All have contained threatening messages, and most contained a white powder. Field tests of the substance have all come back negative, according to the FBI.

The envelopes have all been mailed from the area of Amarillo, Texas, according to Jersey City fire officials.