Several prominent financial institutions in the city received greeting cards mailed from Connecticut with plastic bags containing a white powdery substance that turned out to be harmless, police said Tuesday.
The firms contacted authorities after the cards, which were left blank, arrived in the mail on Monday and Tuesday. Police said the powder contained in the zippered sandwich bags tested negative for hazardous materials; in some instances, it was cornstarch or flour.
All the cards were postmarked from Hartford, Conn. Police declined to identify the recipients.
Earlier this month, a white powder caused a scare at the Washington, D.C., office of a New York politician, Long Island Rep. Peter King. His office was sealed briefly after it received an envelope that bore the words “ammonium nitrate,” which is commonly used in fertilizer and explosives. No one was hurt, and King said the incident was a misunderstanding.
In 2001, just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, anthrax powder mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida killed five people and sickened 17 more.
