Arizona 'ANTHRAX' Scare Related To Band, Not Poisonous Substance

December 19, 2006

Jon Johnson of the Eastern Arizona Courier has issued the following report:

Safford, Arizona police were called to the city's garbage truck yard to investigate a white powdery substance to make sure it was not poisonous.

Garbage truck driver Marty Solberg said he had seen the substance fall out of his truck when he emptied it at the dump. Solberg was concerned because earlier he had seen the word "ANTHRAX" written on the side of a dumpster at the entrance to Discovery Park.

Police secured the garbage truck and called Graham County bioterrorism coordinator Brian Douglas to the scene.

Douglas took a sample of the substance that was still inside the truck to be tested.

As Douglas was collecting the sample, officers were busy locating the source of the substance. Officers were then informed by the EAC Security that two empty flour bags were found in the Discovery Park dumpster. EAC Security also noticed the words "AC/DC" and "IRON MAIDEN" written on the back of the dumpster.

"We didn't get the connection with 'ANTHRAX' the band at first," Douglas said. "The other band names were on the back and not on the same side as the ANTHRAX one was."

Even after discovery of the flour bags and the realization that the ANTHRAX scrawled on the garbage dumpster was most likely in relation to the band, Douglas decided to err on the side of caution.

"We decided to get our ducks in a row," he said. "It went from an emergency to a nonemergency, but we decided to test it anyway."

The test results came up negative for anthrax, plague, tularemia, pox virus, melioidosis and ricin.

At this time police do not know who put the graffiti on the dumpster or who threw the flour there.

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