Police Chief Blows His Cool When Novel Package Shows Up in Office

The panicked police chief called the bomb squad to dismantle a mysterious package--and sheepishly discovered five copies of his first mystery novel sent to his office as a gift.

Chief Joseph McNamara, who has received hate mail and threats because of his calls for gun control, thought that the heavy box marked “office forms” looked suspicious.

“No one in my office had requested any forms,” he said after the incident Thursday, “and when I checked, purchasing hadn’t ordered any either. Besides, the box was too heavy for office forms.”

The sender was an attorney he had met at a mystery book convention in San Francisco.

McNamara had told him about the difficulties in the distribution of his first novel, “The First Directive.” So the attorney sent him some extra copies when he found them on sale.