Letter Scares at Offices of de Blasio, Giuliani

NEW YORK

A series of suspicious letters sent last week to the offices of Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and at least five hotels in New Jersey are baffling investigators trying to uncover who sent them.

The letter to de Blasio did not contain powder but the others did. It later turned out to be corn starch.

On Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told the Daily News that the letter sent to the mayor is not believed to be connected with the others.

“We believe several of them are unrelated, but coincidental that they came in at the same time,” Bratton said. “We had two in our city, one to former Mayor Giuliani’s office and then one to our Mayor Bill de Blasio. New Jersey had a number of incidents at various hotels that were involved in the Super Bowl. Fortunately none of them turned out to be the real thing.”

Amid the bustle and the intense security surrounding the event, there has been a glut of false alarms around the city.

On Saturday, a nervous worker at the Crowne Plaza Hotel overlooking Times Square called police when he found an envelope left behind by a guest. The employee was placed under quarantine as a precaution as the letter was opened. It contained nothing more than a room key.

The security scares continued into Sunday, when a bomb threat against the George Washington Bridge was called in to police. Officials later said it was not a credible threat.

To Read The Full Story

Are you already a subscriber?
Click to log in!