Office Evacuated in Area’s Fifth Anthrax Scare

CHATSWORTH —  In the fifth such incident in the Los Angeles area in a week, authorities Wednesday evacuated an office building because of an anonymous phone threat of a “biological agent.”

Like the other four incidents, in which calls or letters threatened the release of the deadly bacterium anthrax, the call triggered a massive response from city, county and federal authorities.

Following the 10:15 a.m. call, city fire officials evacuated and quarantined about 70 employees in front of the Time Warner Cable Co. building at 9267 Topanga Canyon Blvd. for several hours while specialists gathered air samples for testing. The employees were finally told they could leave at 4:15 p.m.

Officer Don Cox, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, said the cost of the four L.A. anthrax scares was $2 million. “That’s a conservative estimate,” he said. The other scare was in Riverside.

Time Warner executives could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Bruce E. Hagerty said the incidents appear to be unrelated and could be the work of copycats.

“We are confident we will make some arrests,” Hagerty said.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Municipal and Superior Court officials announced their Van Nuys facilities would reopen today. After receiving anthrax threats Monday and evacuating 2,000 people, federal agents determined that no biological agents had been released in the court buildings.

The three-day shutdown of the Van Nuys courts cost taxpayers about $400,000, according to county officials. Both courthouses will face severe backlogs next week as they try to catch up.