Riverside Teacher Target of Anthrax Mail Hoax

A Riverside elementary school teacher was the victim of a scary hoax after receiving a thank you card mailed from Oxnard that warned it contained the deadly bacteria anthrax, authorities said Thursday.

The letter was similar to those mailed to three families in Colorado Springs, Colo., which also bore Oxnard postmarks, U.S. Postal Inspector Pamela Prince said.

“There are enough similarities that we believe there is likely a connection,” Prince said. Stacy Johnson, who teaches visually impaired students at Washington Elementary School in Riverside, received the card Oct. 21. The front of the card read “Thank You.” Inside, Johnson found an unopened, moist towelette package.

“An agent will contact you about this anthrax sample,” the card read, implying the towelette contained the lethal bacteria known to cause respiratory failure and used in biological warfare.

“I read that and I just about flipped,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she has no idea why someone would send her such a letter, noting she is not connected to any controversial political or activist organizations.

Postal authorities are also grasping to find a motive behind the letters.

“Certainly, the question remains, ‘Why would a person spend their time doing this?’ ” Place said. “What type of person would resort to such a desperate measure? What could possibly be the motive other than to satisfy some feelings of inadequacy?”

It was not known if the letter is also connected to one mailed last week in which an antiabortion activist living near Lake Arrowhead received a hoax anthrax letter, Place said. That letter was postmarked in Fort Worth, Texas. Such mailings violate federal laws that bar sending threatening letters and carry a maximum five-year prison sentence, Place said. The letters could also violate California laws against terrorist threats and stalking.

Investigators for the U.S. Postal Service have asked that anyone with information on the mailing call the regional headquarters in Pasadena at (626) 405-1200.