STRATEGIC PARTNERS
December 19, 2001
LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- An ATM user eating breakfast on the run, rather than an anthrax-laden terrorist, was the likely cause of white powder found on a Bank of America ATM in Palm Beach County.
A customer called police at 7:34 a.m. on Dec. 18 after finding white powder on the machine. Lake Worth police decided to err on the side of caution and sent some of the powder to a facility in Miami to be tested. The ATM was then decontaminated with chlorine and cleaner.
"We don't know what the material was," Lake Worth police Sgt. Charles Kane told the Palm Beach Post. "It could have been someone stirring their cream into their coffee, or maybe someone just eating a powdered doughnut."
No one came in contact with the powder, but one bank employee who has asthma was taken to JFK Medical Center after inhaling some chlorine fumes.
The bank was closed the rest of the day and is expected to reopen once test results are known.
