More than 30 threatening letters mailed from Amarillo, Texas, have been received by Chase banks and other financial institutions in eight states in the past two days, including two letters received Tuesday at Chase banks in Aurora and Westminster, according to bank officials and federal investigators.
Law-enforcement authorities said Tuesday that letters containing a white powder had been mailed to financial institutions in Colorado, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Illinois and the District of Columbia.
Mary Jane Rogers, spokeswoman for Chase banks, said the letters were postmarked in Amarillo. She said they were sent to 10 Chase banks in Colorado, three in Oklahoma, nine in New Jersey and to the Chase credit-card center in Elgin, Ill.
FBI agent Mark White, spokesman for the FBI office in Dallas, said Chase was not the only target.
He said that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Dallas and the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision in nearby Irving, Texas, also received threatening letters with a white powdery substance Tuesday.
“Testing on the powder substance has thus far been negative,” said White.
Kathy Wright, spokeswoman for the FBI in Denver, said one threatening letter was received Tuesday at the Chase branch at 3093 104th Ave. in Westminster and another at the Chase bank at 3501 S. Tower Road in Aurora.
Both contained white powder and a threatening note, said Wright.
Special Agent Richard Kolko, spokesman for the FBI in Washington, said that sending a hoax letter is a serious crime.
Kolko said that between January 2007 and August 2008, there had been 900 such incidents around the country and that the FBI had been able to solve many of the threats. “Our guys are good at this,” said Kolko.
Gary Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City, said that the letters received in Oklahoma “basically indicated that the person who opened the letter was going to die.”
Johnson also said that the writer indicated the letters were in response to “an action the bank may have taken.”
In Elgin, two envelopes containing white powder and threatening notes arrived Tuesday and Monday night at the massive Chase credit-card processing center 40 miles west of Chicago, according to Elgin officials.
One envelope was cut open by a machine at the facility about 5 p.m. Monday, causing the white powder to fly around the room, according to Sgt. Brad Entler, the Elgin Police Department’s coordinator of emergency management.
A total of eight letters were received Monday at Chase branches in the Denver area: 9379 Sheridan Blvd.; 16746 E. Smoky Hill Road; 3300 Colorado Blvd; 100 Detroit St.; 1760 16th St.; 14417 W. Colfax Ave.; 8015 Kipling St.; and 12860 W. Alameda Parkway.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
