THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996             TAG: 9601130303
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Short :   49 lines

BOMB SQUAD DESTROYS SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE AT CBN IF IT'S A BOMB, IT'S THE 2ND ONE FOUND THERE SINCE 1990.

The city's bomb squad destroyed a suspicious package Friday, discovered by Christian Broadcasting Network employees in the mail room, police said.

The package was blown up outside the building in a special bunker designed to hold suspected mail bombs or other suspicious articles. It was built after a package blew up at CBN in 1990.

Police and fire investigators refused to say if the package found Friday contained explosives. Typically, when the bomb squad deals with a package that is harmless, police reveal the contents.

After the package was destroyed, a man emerged from the bunker area carrying the apparent remnants of the small box and a clear plastic bag of debris. Mixed with the paper and cardboard shreds, there appeared to be a plastic-coated wire or cable, similar to a telephone cord. The man loaded the material into an unmarked sedan.

The suspicious package, found during mail sorting at 10 a.m., was addressed to CBN and had a return address. But police and CBN officials wouldn't reveal that address nor would they say where the package was mailed.

Workers called security after viewing an X-ray of the package, CBN spokesman Gene Kapp said.

CBN officials said the package was wrapped in packing tape and measured six inches square, about the same size as the package bomb that blew up in the CBN's mail room on April 27, 1990. That blast injured security guard William Scott Scheepers. Scheepers recovered and returned to work. He helped supervise Friday's operations.

The special sandbag-lined bunker was built after the 1990 explosion. The 1990 package was the first bomb found in the mail room, security officers said then. CBN often receives hostile messages in the thousands of pieces of mail it processes daily, officials said.

``We're always careful with the mail we receive,'' Kapp said. The 1990 bomb ``has been in the back of the minds of all our employees since it happened.''

Hostile mail peaked when CBN founder Pat Robertson campaigned unsuccessfully for president in 1988, officials said.

Fire officials are investigating Friday's incident.

KEYWORDS: BOMB by CNB