Remember when we didn't have to worry so about packages and all? I miss those days, it must cost a fortune to have to check all of these things out but I must admit this tickled me a bit :).



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070526/ap_on_fe_st/odd_bobblehead_scare

They evacuated an entire building on account of a suspicious package? Wouldn't it have been easier to take the package out of the building?

Hate to say it, but that was probably the correct procedure. The description of the box is almost exactly what the Post Office tells you to watch out for in suspicious mail items. I'm sort of surprised that the Post Office even mailed it - sometimes they'll keep the item and notify you; asking if you were expecting a package. However, no return address, hand-written label, addressed to a public figure at a government office, stains, that's pretty much about as stereotypical as you can get. All that was missing was a ticking sound coming from the box :P

Once you get a package like that, the recommended course of action is to alert the police - it's up to the police to tell you what to do next. You don't want to move it, or in cases like the arsenic or anthrax threats, touch the package, if you don't have to.

You don't want to move it, or in cases like the arsenic or anthrax threats, touch the package, if you don't have to.That sounds rather stupid. I mean, it's been banged and beaten around by the U.S. post office, so touching it isn't going to set it off. And if it's on some sort of timer, it's far faster to get it out of the building than to try to evacuate the entire building (and that would save the building itself, too, if it were a real bomb).

Im going to have to say that i'd much rather keep the object in question in the building then take it outside and "hope" for the best.

Unless they happened to have some secure place to put it outside of the building that is. :P

Well, I think Toku's avvy is completely appropriate here.

It is not like public officials and authorities don't overreact to such things.

That sounds rather stupid. I mean, it's been banged and beaten around by the U.S. post office, so touching it isn't going to set it off. And if it's on some sort of timer, it's far faster to get it out of the building than to try to evacuate the entire building (and that would save the building itself, too, if it were a real bomb).

Most terrorists are notoriously lax in their concern of secondary casualties in the US Postal Service. So they don't care if anthrax leaks all over us as well as the intended target(s). This is why we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars into air "sniffer" devices that monitor every machine, belt, and mail dumper. USPS officials will not disclose exactly what the detection machines are capable of detecting, not even to us, for security reasons of course. If you mail anything other than paper, photographs, CD/DVD's, or completely inert materials, there's a chance the local SWAT team will get to gleefully use counter-explosives on your package.

As to the point of blowing up en route, most concussion devices are generally set to explode upon being opened, and are usually designed with the idea that they will get shaken a bit while en route.

As a side note, most of all mail processing is done by machine and ne'er a human hand touches it, so chances are if you get a package that looks like it was caught between two rolling 150lb metal drums being rolled by belts moving at 2500 rpm, chances are it was. When you process 2 (B)illion pieces of mail a day, a few are going to get jammed in the machine and trip emergency stops.

We have weekly security meetings in which we are given a laundry list of signs to look for suspicious packages, most of which are way too obvious to actually intercept any real bomb. It has resulted on numerous occasions, in the SWAT team bomb squad evacuating the building, moving the suspect package outside to the official designated area (we are a federal bureaucracy. We have "official" places for everything), and being blown up. So far, boxes full of Skoal metal tops and greasy bottlecaps are not good ideas to mail. Especially if they leak through to the outside wrapping. And the sender doesn't write a return address on the package. The most mystifying one was a box of old sneakers. No idea why they blew up the sneakers. I was off that day.

USPS takes security seriously now. Didn't use to, but we are all about the security now. Don't send anything that even looks like a suspicious package through the mail. It makes us very nervous.

It has resulted on numerous occasions, in the SWAT team bomb squad evacuating the building, moving the suspect package outside to the official designated area (we are a federal bureaucracy. We have "official" places for everything), and being blown up.

Gunny... I just really have to ask.

What the hell is the name of that area? :D

Gunny... I just really have to ask.

What the hell is the name of that area? :D

Honestly, I don't know the official name. I know it has one though.

I've seen the results of a bomb and I feel quite free to leave the area in a rapid motion ;p And I'm not letting anybody touch a suspicious package if I can help it.

USPS officials will not disclose exactly what the detection machines are capable of detecting, not even to us, for security reasons of course

I wonder, though, if it may be because they don't do what exactly what was expected in the first place.

Oh great, more security through obscurity...