Found In The Mail—

Police Investigate Suspicious Powder At Taunton Press

By Andrew Gorosko

After a worker at The Taunton Press offices at 52 Church Hill Road found a “suspicious white powdery substance” within a piece of incoming mail there on the afternoon of May 23, police and firefighters were called to the scene to investigate whether the substance was hazardous.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe, who responded to the scene, said on May 24 that a person opening mail at the publisher’s offices found an unspecified amount of a “suspicious white powdery substance” within a small snap-lock plastic bag within a postage-paid envelope, which the firm had received in the incoming mail.

Only a plastic bag containing that powder was within that envelope, he said. Businesses typically provide customers with such postage-paid envelopes to mail in bill payments.

Chief Kehoe said that no external contamination by the white substance occurred.

The police chief said that the firm apparently receives a variety of foreign objects in its voluminous mail, but that the powder was “something out of the ordinary,” so the firm promptly contacted police to report the incident.

After it was found, a Taunton Press worker placed the envelope containing the plastic bag into a larger envelope to isolate the white powdery substance, Chief Kehoe said.

Firefighters then placed that larger envelope within an evidence container, which was sealed for safekeeping.

The police chief said it is unclear if the postage-paid envelope bore a return address.

Police are conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the envelope’s arrival at the publisher’s offices, Chief Kehoe said. Patrol Officer Domenic Costello is the investigator.

If necessary, the evidence acquired at 52 Church Hill Road would be submitted for chemical analysis, Chief Kehoe said.

“I think we took the precautions that needed to be taken…The company took the precautions that needed to be taken,” Chief Kehoe said.

“You always want to be cautious in day and age,” he said.

Ray Corbo, second assistant chief of Newtown Hook & Ladder, was incident commander for firefighters.

Mr Corbo said firefighters used protective gear to package the substance for police. “We turned it over to the police department,” he said.

Firefighters contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to report the incident, he said.

The white substance that was found in the mail apparently had a relatively coarse texture, he said. “There was a good chance that it was not a viable threat,” he said.

Taunton Press spokesman Tim Rahr, who is the firm’s chief financial officer, referred all comment on the incident to police.