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Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Police swarm station in anthrax note scare

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By Sue Schultz
Staff Writer

HIGH POINT — It was just an envelope with a note inside.

But on Tuesday afternoon, the FBI and police were questioning a gas station employee to find out who would have sent it to his store, lacing the letter with white powder that was alleged to be anthrax.

High Point police  blocked off the gas station’s two entrances and held the store’s manager, who opened the note.  Firetrucks and hazardous-materials trailers filled the small shopping center with emergency crews suiting up for the potential biohazard. State and county health officials, U.S.  Postal Service officials and the FBI from Greensboro descended on the gas station within 30 minutes of the call.

The letter was addressed to Sam Manyang, an employee of the BP station in the College Village shopping center at Lexington Avenue and Centennial Street.

However, the store manager, Wael Feloboss,  opened the letter and was exposed to the unknown white powder, which was later found not to be anthrax.  Police said they and the FBI are investigating the letter and its sender and could file charges.

The anthrax scare — the first in a number of years for the Triad — was called in about 9:30 a.m. by Feloboss, who was alone in the store.

 After the Sept. 11 attacks, anthrax was found in several letters mailed to elected officials in Washington and to media outlets. The incidents led the postal service and law enforcement agencies to enact procedures for handling anthrax outbreaks.

Police said the envelope was sent to Manyang, but the note inside was simply to "Sam." It said: "You shouldn’t treat women like that. I’m gonna cut your (penis) off. Here’s some anthrax for you," according to High Point police.

As the FBI took Manyang to the High Point Police Department about noon to question him about the letter, Feloboss watched from inside the store as Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team members Damon Whitaker and Brian Williard geared up in yellow protective suits. They put on full-face masks and oxygen tanks.

The hazmat crew walked Feloboss from the store to a carwash at the gas station, using it as a  decontamination area, where he was washed off and then sent to High Point Regional Hospital.

The team also brought out the letter in sealed plastic and turned it over to the Guilford County  Department of Public Health for storage.
Preliminary field tests didn’t test positive for anthrax, according to police.
But public health officials were still trying to identify the substance.

The letter had been processed at a postal collection site in Greensboro. Monitoring equipment at the center hadn’t picked up any traces of anthrax when the letter passed through, said Lt. Ken Steele of the High Point police.

Feloboss was released from the hospital late Tuesday after showing no signs of reacting to  anthrax , said Diane Reeves  of the High Point Regional Health System.

The FBI returned Manyang to the gas station Tuesday afternoon, where he met with managers of the store.

 He declined to answer reporters’ questions about the incident.

Contact Sue Schultz at 883-4422, Ext. 232, or sschultz@news-record.com