For the third time in a week, a suspicious package has been found at an office that serves the public in Council Bluffs. Fire Chief Alan Beyers says the latest questionable envelope was found on Wednesday at the Council Bluffs Water Works. “It wasn’t actually something that was mailed, it was something that was put in a drop box,” Chief Beyers says.
“We tested the product and it ended up being a crystalized sugar, so there was no risk to anybody.” Suspicious packages were mailed to the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department twice last week. One contained a liquid and the other a powder.
“It may seem funny to someone at the time but it really is disheartening to people, it’s disturbing and it’s upset a lot of people,” the chief says. Beyers says investigators are trying to determine if the same person is responsible for all three incidents.
“Our investigators are going to pursue this greatly, especially on the two that were mailed,” he says. “There’s some really heavy federal charges that can be levied against someone.”
A suspicious substance was also found Wednesday in a package that was opened at the Iowa State Daily newspaper on the ISU campus. Officials in Ames say the powdery substance was only harmless fragments that had flaked off photo paper.