New Jersey Mailbox Tests Positive for Anthrax

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | Mon Aug 12, 9:27 PM ET | Unknown

[B-bone]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. postal inspectors investigating the anthrax mailings linked to five deaths have discovered a mailbox that tested positive for traces of the bacteria, a postal official said on Monday.

The mailbox was found on Thursday night in Princeton, New Jersey, and has been sent to a U.S. Army facility in Aberdeen, Maryland, for forensic analysis, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Dan Mihalko told Reuters.

He said the mailbox was discovered as investigators checked hundreds of boxes from which mail is funneled to a postal sorting center in Trenton, New Jersey, where four anthrax-laced letters were postmarked last year.

"We've been looking at all the mailboxes that feed into the Trenton facility," Mihalko said. "One of them did test positive."

The mailbox was sent to the army laboratory for more conclusive tests, he said, adding, "We've seen in the past, field tests that turn up false positives."

Five people died and 13 were sickened last year as anthrax-tainted letters were sent to government officials and media outlets in Washington, Florida and New York. The letters were mailed in the weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The FBI launched an investigation in October to find the person responsible for the anthrax attacks. Authorities are offering a $2.5 million reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

[Sacajaweau]

Are we being duped??

We are being told that this mailbox was just tested ....NOW???

I would think that when they were testing the copy machines at Princeton, they would be testing the mailboxes also. The FBI isn't THAT dumb.

So,here we are, 4 or 5 months after the copiers were tested with a box close by with Anthrax on it's surface.

What's really going on.

These pieces don't fit.

P.S. If I were going to put Anthrax in the mail, I would drive to the box I wanted to use, put it in the pickup box shortly before the pickup time and wait and watch that the mail was picked up and the Anthrax got into the system. I'd guess two people in a car, one with a camera since these Terrorists just love to Document their acts.

We know the movements of Atta and his friends by their vehicles and I'd sure like to "match dates" on their moves up the coast just preceeding 9-11. Where did they stop??Who did they "pass" the Anthrax to??

Sac

[muawiyah]

Anthrax spores knocked loose from a contaminated "flat tray" placed in the bottom of the box - seems my education of you folks about how the post office really operates is paying off.

This is the same way that NJ letter carrier caught cutaneous anthrax - from a tray!

Postal management elected to not destroy contaminated trays. This problem will continue to pop up for years. It is not possible now to destroy the contaminated trays without destroying them all.

[Shermy]

Just some followup. The local college paper alwasy says the mailbox is "across the street from Holder Hall." According to the map available at Princeton.edu, Holder Hall is a dorm, among others occupying the NE corner of the campus.

[Shermy]

"Do you buy the story that it has taken eleven months to actually get around to testing the mailboxes serving the Hamilton regional postal facility?"

Actually, yes I do. Compare the story about rechecking the Florida attack site (just about a week after Freepers noted it was the key "link" in the story, do to its oddity).

[aristeides]

If this alumnus of the Class of '68 remembers accurately, Holder Hall is in the NW corner (the Firestone Library is in the NE corner.)

[aristeides]

It is not possible now to destroy the contaminated trays without destroying them all.

I would hazard the guess that it would be a lot cheaper to destroy all the trays than to face liability for another case of anthrax.

[Shermy]

Whoops, you're right!

[muawiyah]

You'd need a couple of expert witnesses who were able to refute every postal argument. Otherwise, any lawyer bringing a suit against USPS for anthrax related injuries would be in the same boat as the FBI.

BTW, there are such expert witnesses, and some of them are getting angry with the criminal stupidity of the FBI in this case.

[Catspaw]

A very recent e-mail from my daughter says that one of the mail carriers said (I'll have to e-mail her for her source) that the mailbox in question has been used by mail carriers to "park" other pick-up boxes (those white plastic bins) in the mailbox in question while the mail carriers do their routes. There could've been cross-contamination, but as far as I know, there are still over 30 mailboxes left to test, and, as far as we know, this is still the only mailbox to test positive for anthrax.

I don't know if they mean the mailboxes left to test are in the Princeton area, or those are mailboxes that feed into the Hamilton Township sorting facility, a much wider area than Princeton Borough and Township.

[Shermy]

Thanks for the great inside info.

[Catspaw]

Shermy, because of my daughter's health problems (rheumatoid arthritis), I wish she wasn't the inside source. She's got a compromised immune system & anthrax would kill her--her body just doesn't have the resources to fight back. However, she has promised that she will not stick her head into any mailboxes in downtown Princeton and inhale deeply. She also thinks I'm overreacting. NAAAAW.

[Coleus]

ping

[Calpernia]

Major BUMP for later!

Gene, PING!!! I'll be back later and FR mail you about that phone call. have to run now!

[Calpernia]

This is a story from 2002?

[genefromjersey]

That was me-probably. There was one box id'd in Princeton already-within walking distance of campus.I'm looking ( as a plain old civilian)for possible link(s)-mainly because I'm ticked off at anybody doing this in my "back yard".

[Coleus]

Yes it is.

[aristeides]

I think the poster I was thinking of in #12 was oldfriend.

[genefromjersey]

OK. After responding I noticed the original was almost a year old !