THE LOOP (WBBM Newsradio) -- Authorities are investigating the source of a suspicious letter mailing that sparked an emergency response at the Cook County Building.
"This is some nutjob," Treasurer Maria Pappas says of whoever sent the white powder inside an envelope discovered by a mailroom worker on the first floor of her offices at the county building, 118 N. Clark St., just after 10:00 am Thursday.
"The guy in the mailroom is no dummy," Pappas said of the worker who found the envelope. "He immediately puts it in a plastic envelope and gets it upstairs."
The Chicago Fire Department automatically sent a hazardous materials team to the treasurer's office, and Pappas said they figured out it was baking powder within about 45 minutes.
"Unfortunately, one tenth of one percent of the population causes problems," she said, adding that her office was not evacuated and that she was not in the office when the envelope was discovered.
The FBI has reportedly alerted elections and other government offices about reports of similar suspicious mailings popping up in other locations around the country. Pappas said she didn't know if the letter that came to her office was part of that, and said she had not yet heard from the FBI.
Substance in envelope found to be baking powder: "this is some nutjob"
Substance in envelope found to be baking powder: "this is some nutjob"
