Another U. office gets knife in mail

Following two incidents last week, a Logan Hall office was the target. An administrator in Logan Hall received a threatening package in the mail yesterday, five days after similar packages were found in College Hall and the Law School, according to police. "It seems there's no pattern to these things at all," University Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Tom King said. One similarity, though, is that all three packages were postmarked from outside of Philadelphia. Police declined to comment on possible sources. A small knife was inside the package found yesterday, King said. He declined to identify to whom the package was sent. Staff and faculty members working in Logan Hall include those in the main office of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, the University Scholars program and several College departments. Last Thursday, a package containing a meat cleaver was sent to Vice Provost for Research Ralph Amado's College Hall office. Hours later, police were alerted to another suspicious package at the Law School, this one containing a small paring knife. The envelope found at Logan Hall was likely sent at the same time as the other two, King said, but either took longer to arrive or simply was not noticed until yesterday. None of the packages contained any type of message. King said that the packages are not a cause for alarm but should be viewed with caution. "It's important that people in the University community are aware of this -- not necessarily alarmed, but aware, and use due caution before they open their mail," he said. Initially, police believed that the package to Amado was from animal rights activists because of his links to animal research. But that theory was discarded when the similar Law School package was discovered. University Police are working with the U.S. Postal Service to investigate the incidents. All the knives were sent in similar 8 1/2" by 11" manila envelopes with a typed affixed mailing label. Police warned people to be on the lookout for envelopes with inaccurate or misspelled titles and names, no return addresses or excessive postage.