COUNTYWIDE : Bomb Threats Sent to Government Units

The FBI is investigating what agents described as “a plurality of bomb threats” that have been mailed from Santa Ana to more than a dozen state and federal government agencies across the country.

FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said the bureau could not release specific details of the investigation beyond disclosing that it was centered in Santa Ana. But he acknowledged that between 12 and 20 government agencies have received the bomb threats.

Chuck Moyer, an administrator at the Nevada state division of unclaimed property, said he received a copy of the bomb threat when he opened his morning mail Thursday. The letter contained the message, “Consider this as a bomb threat.”

Moyer said that the letter was unsigned and that it was mailed from Santa Ana on Dec. 29. “It was handwritten on plain white paper,” he said. “It’s a mystery why someone has a grudge against the unclaimed property division.”

Moyer said Nevada officials are taking the threat seriously. He said that an emergency response plan has been revised and that the division’s employees were setting aside suspicious-looking packages that arrive in the mail.

Officials were unavailable for comment on how California agencies were reacting.

Moyer said checks by the Nevada agency revealed that divisions of unclaimed property in other states had received the same threat.