HazMat Team Finds 'Suspicious' Mailing to be Harmless

The delivery of a “suspicious package” to the Lawrence Township office of the Philadelphia Insurance Co. today (Monday, June 4) prompted a response from the Trenton Fire Department’s hazardous materials team, along with Lawrence Township police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel.

Trenton hazardous materials technicians examined the package and, after determining it was not hazardous, discovered that it contained some gold jewelry that had been mailed to the wrong address, township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry said.  

Ubry said it was 10:19 a.m. when township police received a phone call from the manager of the insurance company office - located in the 1000 block of Lenox Drive in the Princeton Pike Corporate Center - “reporting they had received a suspicious package.”

Township police, the township’s daytime duty crew of career firefighters, volunteer firefighters from Lawrenceville Fire Co. and a township ambulance crew were all sent to the office. As a precaution, Trenton’s HazMat team was also dispatched.

After some investigation, Ubry said, it was determined that the package of gold had been accidentally mailed to the office by a woman who works there. He said she had intended to ship the jewelry to an address in East Hanover.

With public safety not endangered and no crime having been committed, the jewelry was returned to the woman and all police and emergency services personnel cleared the scene shortly after noon, Ubry said.