Another mailroom security threat: two letter bombs exploded on Wednesday at two separate locations in the Netherlands, according to Reuters. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incidents.
Both explosions were minor, one at an ABN Amro bank mail-sorting office in Amsterdam and the other in a mail room at Ricoh, 140 miles away.
Dutch police explained the mail bombs were part of an extortion attempt, in which the perpetrator demanded payment via bitcoin. No arrests were made.
Not an Isolated Event
In a statement, the police said that the letter discovered this morning was one of several letter bombs sent to locations across the country.
An employee in the Amsterdam mailroom heard a hissing sound as they were about to open a letter, city police said.
“The employee threw the letter away and there was a small explosion,” they said on Twitter.
In een postkamer van een bedrijfspand aan de Bolstoen heeft woensdagochtend even voor 8 uur een explosie plaatsgevonden, vermoedelijk veroorzaakt door een bombrief. Geen gewonden. Woordvoering politie komt ter plaatse.
— Politie Eenheid Amsterdam (@POL_Amsterdam) February 12, 2020
Ongoing Police Investigation
In this case, the targets were the companies themselves. Dutch police have been investigating a series of letter bombs since Jan. 3—all of which appear to have been sent by the same person.
The previous letter bombs were all intercepted before they could go off. Previous targets include a hotel, a gas station, a garage, a real estate agent, and a bill collection service.
Let’s hope this is not the beginning of a larger pattern of these mailroom security threats.