A letter containing a “suspicious bluish powder” was delivered Monday to a savings and loan in southwest suburban Frankfort, bringing out hazardous material teams shortly after threatening letters and strange substances closed offices in the west suburbs.
A series of letters containing white powder prompted government offices in Brookfield and Lyons to close for part of the day. Initial tests indicated the substance was non-hazardous, officials said.
“By all indications, what we have is a hoax incident,” U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Paul Krenn said.
Although the powder in Frankfort had not been identified as of Monday evening, it was not believed to be “corrosive, biological or radiological in nature,” Police Chief Robert Piscia said.
The substance and the envelope in which it was delivered were turned over to the FBI’s joint terrorist task force for analysis, Piscia said. The FBI would try to determine who sent it, he added.
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The Frankfort Police and Fire Departments were called shortly before 2 p.m. to TCF Bank, 505 N. La Grange Rd., and then the Southwest Hazmat team was called to investigate a suspicious powder in a letter opened by a bank employee.
Piscia said that as further precaution, the employee who handled the letter and the postal carrier were taken to Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet. The bank employee complained of a skin irritation.
Ivan Harris, supervisor of the FBI office in Tinley Park, said at a Frankfort news conference that he did not know whether the incident was related to the powders in the west suburbs.
Officials would not discuss the letters in the west suburbs other than to say they were “of a revealing nature” and were in the hands of FBI investigators.
Individual envelopes were received at the Brookfield Zoo, a Brookfield fire station, the Brookfield-North Riverside Water Commission and the Lyons Police Department.
As a precautionary measure, Lyons Village Hall was closed to the public for several hours. The fire station at 9001 Shields Ave. was closed for most of the morning, while the Water Commission offices, 8636 Brookfield Ave., were closed for four hours.