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Dispatchers field dozens of frantic calls about suspicious mail, powder and people. Most of the worries prove unfounded.
By TAMARA LUSH
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 17, 2001
TAMPA -- Shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday, a frantic woman called 911. She had received a letter in the mail, she told dispatcher Pam Nelson, and had a bad feeling that the envelope had white powder in it.
"I didn't open the envelope," the woman said, on the verge of tears. "I threw it away."
"You threw it away?" Nelson asked, slightly puzzled. "That could be a problem."
"Should I go to the clinic or something?" the woman asked.
In a soothing voice, Nelson told the woman to stay put and that an officer would visit her soon.
The woman was one of thousands of confused and concerned people around the country who called authorities to report suspicious-looking mail, packages or people this week. On Tuesday afternoon, at least 25 people called 911 to report receiving weird mail -- and that was just in Tampa. Many specifically said they were worried about anthrax. Several said they saw white powder in letters, packages and boxes.
The FBI has received more than 2,300 reports of incidents or suspected incidents involving anthrax. Most of them have been false alarms or practical jokes, authorities said.
Consider these recent 911 calls from worried Tampa residents:
A woman received an envelope with no return address. She noticed that a nickel was taped onto a letter inside. "It feels very heavy," she told a dispatcher.
Someone found a box of cooking oil near a softball field. The cans of oil were covered in white powder, a man reported.
A woman received a letter at home and immediately dialed 911. "She doesn't know where it came from and she is concerned," a dispatcher wrote in a report.
None of these cases turned out to be anthrax, but authorities must take each call seriously.
All of the 911 dispatchers in Tampa have a photocopied primer on anthrax taped to their computer monitor. It gives dispatchers a list of questions and directives to use when people call to report strange mail:
"ADVISE NOT TO TOUCH. DO NOT TAKE ITEM FROM AREA. STAY CALM."
To an outsider, the Tampa emergency communications center is anything but calm. Each dispatcher faces two computer screens: one for answering the call, another for dispatching the call to police. Everyone uses a headset and answers calls in almost hushed voices. The only other noise is the sound of fingers hitting dozens of computer keys.
Kristina Duran has been a dispatcher for two years. She talks to people during their worst moments. Once, a man shot himself while on the phone with her.
While taking calls, Duran knits an afghan for her 8-month-old daughter. Dispatchers are allowed to work on such crafts as a stress reliever.
Three televisions mounted high on the walls broadcast the news, but the sound is turned down. On Monday night, the words "Anthrax Alert" flashed on the screens.
"Whatever the news is, that's what people are calling about," Duran said. "A lot of people are worried. Everyone is scared of everything."
One person recently called Duran to tell her that two Middle Eastern-looking men were looking at a map and driving down the street. Another man asked for the police to come to his neighborhood, because his neighbors were playing their music too loud. "The caller said it was a national security issue, that he couldn't hear the airplanes coming toward his house," Duran said.
The most bizarre call, Duran said, came a couple of weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
A woman who did data entry, inputting credit card applications for the Target stores, dialed 911 one night. She had received an application for a Target credit card. The applicant?
Osama bin Laden.