Days after ricin-tainted letters were sent to government officials, including President Barack Obama, a supposedly anthrax-tainted letter was sent to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in Tallahassee. Officials quickly determined the letter to be a hoax.
The letter was opened at the DMV this morning and contained a threat that said the letter contained anthrax. Authorities arrived on the scene quickly and shut off the air-conditioning and quarantined employees. Public Information Officer with the Tallahassee Fire Department, Mike Bellamy, said it was quickly found that the letter’s threat wasn’t credible.
“There was no substance visible or detected in the envelope or on the letter. We did run a quick radiation, explosives, and chemical test on the actual paper itself, we did that, we found that there was no trace of any of that. We were able to put it in a safe container,” Bellamy iterated.
About six employees in the office that received the letter were triaged and later deemed to be “asymptomatic,” or free of contamination, and the offices were reopened to the more than 1,500 employees after 1 PM. The letter has been turned over to the Department of Health for further testing.