(CBS Denver) A large-scale investigation is underway in Boulder after a threatening letter was sent to a Jewish center with a harmless white powder inside and two suspicious packages were found nearby. Another Jewish organization also received a letter with harmless white powder in South Boulder.
The events started when employees at the Jewish Community Center, located on the 3800 block of Kalmia Avenue, opened the envelope at 8:30 a.m. The letter said “You have enemies.”
There were about a dozen preschool children in the building at the time, along with staff.
“There might have been 10 or a dozen children at the school, plus staff. So our first priority was to (evacuate) them to a safe location,” said Boulder Sheriff’s spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Hendry.
The Boulder County Health Department and a hazmat team responded to the incident, and an office where the letter was opened was isolated and the two employees kept safe. Everyone else was evacuated.
Those two employees were then medically treated by an ambulance crew.
“They are in great shape. A hazmat crew just got done with their work. They came from Boulder Fire Department and Boulder Rural Fire departments. They suited up, went into the building, brought the material out, tested it and it has come back as a benign substance,” Hendry said.
Sheriff’s officials said that while they were searching the area two packages were found and they were called suspicious. A bomb squad was called in to investigate.
“We did a secondary search of the area and found a couple of packages that were deemed suspicious,” Hendry said.
It’s not clear what was in the packages.
The threatening letter had a local return address authorities said officers were sent to that location to check it out.
“The letter itself was addressed to the community center and there was a return address on it,” Hendry said.
The sheriff’s office has declined to give more information about the return address or if they have a suspect in their investigation. The FBI and a postal inspector are assisting police with their investigation.
The Congregation Har HaShem in South Boulder also received a letter with white powder on Monday just before noon.
“When they heard about the package that was received at the JCC earlier this morning they decided to look through the mail outside, and that’s when they found the suspicious package,” Rabbi Mark Glickman with Congregation Har HaShem told CBS4.
That powder was also found to be harmless.
“We feel very fortunate that our employees are safe,” Glickman said.
Source: CBS Local (Denver)
