THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412180075
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
A bomb squad destroyed a suspicious package at the home of a computer analyst Saturday because police believed it might have been sent by an elusive serial bomber who has killed two people and wounded two dozen more in other states.
The package contained only a videotape.
Residents from a dozen homes were evacuated for about two hours while police inspected the device. After X-rays couldn't determine the contents, the Police Department Bomb Squad destroyed the package with a special device that remotely fires a shotgun shell.
Police spokesman Lou Thurston said the package delivered to a home in the 200 block of Oakengate Turn appeared similar in several ways to the mail bomb that killed a New Jersey advertising executive Dec. 10 at his residence, and to other mail bombs authorities believe were sent by the same man.
Federal authorities said the New Jersey mail bomb that killed Thomas J. Mosser, 50, appeared to be the work of a man FBI agents call the ``Unabomber.''
Thurston declined to discuss the similarities between the packages.
The recipient of the package, who would only identify herself as Jo, said her name and address was typed on paper and taped to the manila-colored envelope. Inside the padded envelope, there appeared to be a box about the size of a videotape, she said.
The mostly illegible return address, written in pencil, was a post-office box.
She said the package had a row of stamps, indicating the sender didn't send the parcel from a post office.
The FBI, in the wake of the New Jersey mail bombing, said people who receive unexpected parcels should be wary of, among other things, packages with mysterious or possibly fictitious return addresses, and packages with too much postage.
The ``Unabom'' series of attacks that began in 1978 have targeted university professors, and airline and computer workers, the FBI said.
The recipient of the mysterious package in Virginia Beach works with computers in Norfolk, police said.
Last week, a William and Mary professor called police to investigate a mysterious package. After destroying it, police discovered the package contained a tuxedo the professor had ordered.
In the Virginia Beach case, the package recipient said she thought of the ``Unabom'' cases when she saw the thick envelope Friday night. She said she put the package outside on a rear deck overnight.
``I thought it was very suspicious-looking,'' she said. ``But I didn't want to bother the police. I didn't sleep at all last night thinking about it.''
She called police Saturday morning.
A wooden bench behind the residence was damaged when police detonated the package, which had been sent by a company in West Virginia and contained a videotape made by the recipient while on a vacation there two years ago. Neighbors who were evacuated returned to their homes at around 3p.m.
KEYWORDS: EXPLOSIVES by CNB