What tactics for this?

[skidmark]

Today has been the kind of day you really do not want to have.

There I was (tm) opening mail from inmates, just like any other day. The envelope is sealed all the way to the edges of the flap, making it just that much harder to get the letter opener inserted to rip the sucker open. Then, inside is this wad of paper all folder up on itself, so I know it's going to be a burden to get it all straightened out so I can read it.

Are there any bells going off in my head yet? Nope! How about in your head - anything happening yet?


















So I get started on opening and straightening out this wad of paper, thinking all the tings I'd like to say to the jerk who decided to make my life just this little bit more difficult on a Monday morning.



















POOF!
















We have white powder coming out of the wadded up, folded over paper, and it is starting to fall onto my desk.



Questions suddenly going thru my head -- Should I just bend over and kiss it goodbye? Why me? Why am suddenly out of my chair, shutting off the fan, and slowly closing the office door, when I'm not really sure what just happened really happened? Would somebody please call the HazMat folks? Why is it taking so long to get a HazMat guy here when the other tenants in the building are the state agency in charge of HazMat?

After about 10 minutes of milling around by the rest of the residents of the office, we seem to have agreed that everybody needs to just stay put, not wander around, and wait for the local cops & FD to show up. There is some discussion of a similar incident at one of the prisons last Friday, how they handled the immediate situation and how they turned it into a full-blown facility-wide training exercise that lasted all day.

Great! Now I can look forward to being here all day while wondering what may or may not have been in the envelope.

First to respond (in about 20 minutes, but I'm really not sure because I was not watching the clock at all) are the local cops. They were dispatched to a HazMat scene. So two cops, from 2 squad cars, both enter the building and come to interview me and get a look-see at the incident/crime scene. They graciously decline my offer of business cards with much of the victim/subject's (Hey! That's me!) info already printed out. Some time later about 4 guys from the local FD show up to ask questions about who and where, but nothing specific about what. They say the HazMat specialists are on their way & will be handling the response - they just need to get preliminary info and relay it. Finally, the Sergeant shows up & tells the first cop that she can stay, while the other one can brief him. (I am a crime/incident scene, and must be preserved!)

In the meantime folks are wandering all over the place, coming to see what's going on or just taking the usual path from part A to part B of the building.

The word comes down that all employees are to stay in their offices/cubicles until further notice - except me. I'm to stay out in the aisle. (Think outer square of offices, with a cubilcle corral in the center. Aisle circles the cubicle corral.)

Now comes the wait for someone - anyone - to decide what happens next. Oh, yeah! Also the wait for the HazMat team to show up.

to be continued

[skidmark]

continuing --

The state agency Hazmat guy shows up and tells me that the local Hazmat folks are here but need to develop a plan of action, so just sit tight. After some waiting he comes & asks some questions - some the same as others have asked, some new. He leaves.

Word comes that everybody in the building except me and the nice local cop are to exit the building & go to the parking lot. I'm the incident & cannot expose the rest of the world by going outside. The cop has to preserve the incident/crime scene.

We wait. We wait some more. Folks start wandering in & out, but not coming to our end of the aisle. Nobody knows what is reallly going on, or if they do they are not sharing with me & the local cop who is preserving me.

We see the HazMat folks outside in the parking lot. They have their contamination suits on, but hoods are not up & no masks or other face covering in place. I'm disappointed, because I was hoping they would come in full spacesuit getup. The local cop & I are making general conversation, but she keeps writing down notes. I'm wondering if it's to record my last words, or what?

We (the local cop & the incident/crime scene) start to get hungry, as it is now well past lunchtime. We ask several of the folks wandering around if there are any box lunches left over from the training session that was going on till I opened the letter & announced there was a problem.

Nope! No box lunches left over.

But there is some stuff left from the staff breakfast buffet, and we can get to it, plus have a microwave to reheat the goodies. The local cop elects the fresh fruit, and I have the unneeded second helping today of omlet with sausage & bacon. We talk the office manager into getting 2 Cokes from the machines down the hall.

We eat. We drink. All is as good as it can get right now. And word comes that the HazMat team is looking at a 3:30 PM entry into the building.

3:30!?! That's more than an hour and a half from now. And they have been out in the parking lot for at least an hour already! What's going on? How terrible is the situation, and why are they not telling me the bad news?

OK, my TSHTF meter is still wayyyy over on the nothing going on here side, as the chances of this being a for-real bio-hazzard incident are very low. But from the very beginning I said we need to pay this out as if it were real, just in case it turns out it is for real.

2:45 PM and the HazMat guys are walking past the window we can seeout of into the parking lot. And now they have masks on and are grouping up by Tyvek suit colors -- grey, blue, white, and the guy in bright yellow who seems to be in almost a spacesuit and carrying a box that looks important.

to be continued --

[JamisJockey]

Dewd, you're in for a long day. Those tests take entirely too long.

My money is on talcom powder.

[nfl1990]

Yep, I had that happen at my high school with mercury, we sat around waiting for about 5 hours, but the test only took 5 mins.

[skidmark]

continuing --

he HazMat guys come in making enough Tyvek-rubbing-against-Tyvek noise to make a new pair of courderoys sound like a stealth suit. They stack up outside my closed office door, and then huddle up for a quick conference.

Have you ever tried to hold a discreet conversation with folkjs wearing gas masks while you are wearing a gas mask? A conversation yo do not want the incident/crime scene to hear, but he is sitting there not 6 feet away from the huddle? Well, these folks did. It was not sucessful.

The huddle was who gets to open the door, who gets to stick their head in and to the quick peek, and should they then shut the door, creating 2 breezes, or just leave it open? It's decided they leave it open, and stack up again.

The door is opened. The incident/crime scene and the local cop are sitting not 10 feet away, watching this happen. They look. One of them takes a disposable camera, in a ziplock baggie, and begins taking pictures of the desk, the letter, the envelope, the pile of powfer, and everything else except the incident/crime scene and the local cop. The guy in the yellow almost-a-space-suit, with the important-looking box, is wayyy down the aisle away from the door and all of us.

They call the guy in the yellow suit to come closer. He needs almost 5 minutes to get out of his crouch and lumber up next to the door. I'm thinking he has another suit under the yellow suit, and maybe more under that. Or else he has the stiffest joints I've ever heard try to move.

They get out the sample probe. It's a stainless steel thingy with a flat blade, sort of like that thing the dentist uses to mix up the goop he puts in your mouth to make a cast of your teeth. They enter the office, scoop up a sample, and carry it out to the yellow box. The guy holding the probe has it in one hand, with a mound of the powder on the flat blade, and his other hand cupped underneath. I guess he is going to catch any spill in his palm, if there is any spill.

They put a portion of the sample into a part of the yellow box - which I now find out is an infrared spectrometer. The guy in the yewllow suit flips some switches, punches some keys, and says:



Gold Bond Medicated Powder.


According to the yellow box there is a 99%+ certainty that's what the powder is.

But --

I still have to change out of my clothes, put tem in a red biohazzard bag, and try to get into this Tyvek suit they brought for me.

OK, I admit I'm vertically challenged for my weight. Maybe by a foot. Maybe more. I guarantee you I am NOT a Tyvek suit size XL, Thanks for the thought, guys, but this is going to be a literal stretch. I get most of me into the Tyvek suit. I get escorted out to the parking lot and the aiting ambulance, where they take my vital signs and ask if I'd like to be transported to trhe ER. (Quick note - I have a history of cardiac probles & have an implanted pacemaker/defibrilator.) I decline the offer of the ride.

BP 178/80 - not bad for a guy with a "normal of 72/110 on meds. Pulse 80 & regular - again not bad for a "normal" of 60. Respiration 15 & regular. All together not bad for the kind of day its been so far.

An interview with the state police & Postal Inspector guys, and then I am told the incident/crime scene can go home for the day, but not to go into my office tomorrow till they call with results from the lab testing.

continued --

[mattdus]

EDIT...beat me to the punch anyway (glad thats all it is)

ohhhh...an inmate somewhere is going to get it alright. although it is possible that it is something I am willing to bet that its foot powder, assuming it came from an inmate somewhere as indicated. most inmates wouldn't risk infecting the entire prison getting something like that inside unless they have a death wish or something, so unless it came from a super max facility I wouldn't worry too much myself.

good luck......better yet good health.
Matt

[skidmark]

continuing --

Now the tactics questions:

1- revolver, pistol, carbine, rifle or shotgun?

2 - double-tap or go to slide-lock?

3 - shoot just the first jerk who says "Trick or Treat" or all the people standing around wanting to see my expression?

Seriously - I'm doing OK right now, because

1) I've been through many a crisis and have learned how to cope while in the midst of tyhe situation. OK, maybe not "cope" but to control the reactions & responses so Ican focus on the immediate issues first.

2) I've learned to debrief right away, and had some good folks do that with me today.

3) I know to expect the adrenaline dump and am as ready as I can make myself. I know what to expect - at least theoretically and based on previous experience.

4) I've got a good support system in place, and they are keeping in contact without being overpowering or pushy about it.

5) My sense of humor is still operating. As much as there were other emotions & thoughts going thru my head, I could use humor to defuse myself and the situation. I know that if that sense of humor goes it means bad times ahead.

6) I'm going to enjoy it when they figure out who sent this letter. I'm going to enjoy hearing him get sentenced to some additional time. But I'm not going to be seeking revenge or be vindictive about it. Nope. I'm going to remain above all that. Yep! I sure will.

Mostly I guess the reason I put this all down was to say that even though I've never had training in responding to being the victim of a potential biohazzard incident, all the other training came to good use and seemed to keep me from running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Ask me tomorrow after the lab results come in if I still feel like this.

stay safe.

skidmark

[MAURICE]

Not second guessing you here, as I work with Inmates as well.
I woulda have been P-O'd. I would have fetched the inmate the letter to whom the letter was adressed and a field drug test kit and made him sit and wait while I figured out if it was a drug or not. If it was legal action would have been taken against the person sending it, and disciplinary (if posssible) against the inmate.
Don't think the idea that it might have been hazmat would have even entered my thick skull.

[skidmark]

Not second guessing you here, as I work with Inmates as well.
I woulda have been P-O'd. I would have fetched the inmate the letter to whom the letter was adressed and a field drug test kit and made him sit and wait while I figured out if it was a drug or not. If it was legal action would have been taken against the person sending it, and disciplinary (if posssible) against the inmate.
Don't think the idea that it might have been hazmat would have even entered my thick skull.

My bad. Did not share enough info cause I was focusing on the immeduate situation. (Another tactical lesson learned - thanks!)

I sit in a Regional Office. The letter had been sitting in my inbox since some time last Friday, but I was out of town at a meeting all day Friday so did not get to any mail till this morning.

Thus the though of HazMat.

You better believe that disciplinary and legal action are going to be pursued. Just hope I can be at all the disciplinary hearings. As for court, that is going to take longer, but will be a real treat to be at.

stay safe.

skidmark

[Working Man]

I doubt I'll be complaining next time I have to wait for something at work any
time soon.

Thanks for putting it into perspective. :D

[NMshooter]

Sounds to me like the important questions are: Was the omlet still tasty? and Was the female local officer cute and personable?

:D

If it had been an actual hazardous substance immediately stripping all clothing and showering with soap or bleach (watch the eyes!) would have been a good thing to do, but how would you know what was in the package?

You end up either overreacting most of the time, and looking silly, or taking it easy on that one in a million chance it is the real thing.

Unless I misjudge your position you probably are not a "high value" target, so I would not worry about breaking any speed records heading for some place to clean up next time if I were you.

And if the offender is sufficiently punished and the word gets around there should not be a next time...:evil:

[skidmark]

Sounds to me like the important questions are: Was the omlet still tasty? and Was the female local officer cute and personable?

:D

And if the offender is sufficiently punished and the word gets around there should not be a next time...:evil:

She was very cute, and very personable. Also very married. But time did pass by more pleasantly than it might otherwise.

I'm going to see just how fast disciplinary action takes. Right now the State Police have all the evidence, so there might be a delay. As for sufficient punishment acting as a deterrent - I'm not so sure just yet. There was an incident last Friday where another facility found an outgoing letter with powder in it. Plus a letter sent to the State Police HQ a few days ago - origin unknown other than from one of the prison facilities. I'm thinking that the grapevine might be a bit overactive right now.

The part that gets my dander up is that the letter was not even addressed to me. It was addressed to the Regional boss, but I handle a large part of the correspondence addressed to him. I'm seriously thinking of telling him to open his own letters from now on and pass on what he wants me to deal with, instead of me getting the bulk of the mail & sending him the stuff that requires direct responses.

If it had been an actual hazardous substance immediately stripping all clothing and showering with soap or bleach (watch the eyes!) would have been a good thing to do, but how would you know what was in the package?

According to the Hazmat guys, once exposed to powder there is not much to be gained by stripping & showering as opposed to washing hands & face & just covering clothing to prevent additional contamination by touching contaminated areas then touching eyes/nose/mouth. The big thing seems to be shutting down the area and eliminating means for any aresolized powder from spreading to other parts of the building.

stay safe.

skidmark

[MAURICE]

Ahh. I misunderstood you.
I was under the (Wrong) impression that you were reading male to the inmates. In your case I may very well may have reacted in the same matter.
Some of these guys do not like being in prison. Cannot be too careful.

An applicable quote for Family Guy fans:
Peter: Oh crap...since when did they change the meaning of "for" to "from"?
Brian: They had a meeting about it last night.
Peter: Why wasn't I told?
Brian: They sent you a card, but it said "for Peter" on it so you must of thought it was from you, so you didn't...you know, its just easier to call you stupid.

[walking arsenal]

I would have grabbed the inmate, dagged him to my office, showed him the envelpe and said "here, smell this" "What is it"? "I dunno, it arrived for you this morning and had this white powder in it, think it's anthrax"?