WASHINGTON — Crews in full hazmat gear were spotted in a Northeast, D.C. neighborhood Monday morning after residents woke up to find a powdery white substance on their car door handles.
First responders blocked traffic heading down 36th Street NE off Minnesota Avenue to allow firefighters to test the mysterious substance on more than a dozen cars.
"At first I was going to clean it off and then I thought, you know what I better not," NE resident Monica Brown said. "Brentwood post office is not far from here and unfortunately we know we lost two postal workers to anthrax.”
Brown called 911 and DC FEMS responded with two hazmat trucks, an ambulance, a fire engine and ladder truck. After about an hour and a half, crews determined the substance was unbleached flour.
Another resident, Terry Brocks, managed to catch the suspect who left the powder behind on surveillance video. Just before 10:30 a.m., footage shows a woman holding a shallow box spread the powder on the handles of the front driver and passenger doors. Brocks then sent the photos to WUSA9, and alerted his neighbors to what he had found.
“I said 'don’t touch the door handles, there’s a white powdery substance on them!'” Brocks said. "Anthrax or cyanide powder doesn’t care who you are -- the moment it touches your skin, it’s game over."
This isn't the first time D.C. residents reported a mysterious white powdery substance on cars. Police and Firefighters on the scene told WUSA9 the same scenario played out in Southeast last year.
“It may have been a prank to them, but it definitely wasn’t funny,” Brown said. “It was very concerning, because of the state of the world, and we live in the Nation’s capital, and there are always people who make threats."
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