Linh Ta

lta@dmreg.com

A suspicious package sent to the Bernie Sanders Headquarters in Des Moines turned out to be a supporter sending envelopes to the office.

The Bernie Sanders headquarters in Des Moines reported receiving a suspicious FedEx package to police Friday morning.

The package arrived at 3420 Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines around 10 a.m. After examining the packaging and its content, campaign staff for the Democratic presidential candidate called the police, said Rania Batrice, spokesperson for the Iowa campaign.

"Just the packaging and the contents were a little strange, but we contacted the authorities and they have all of that," Batrice said. "We just wanted to make sure everyone around is kept safe."

A hazmat team was brought to the office soon after the report. Police were on the scene for an hour, Batrice said. Ted Jefferson, fire prevention inspector and public information officer for the Des Moines Fire Department said there was an envelope inside of the package that held shredded paper, similar to confetti. He said one campaign staffer reported getting powder on her hands.

"There was a lady who claimed she had powder on her, but our hazmat team found nothing to suggest there was any chemicals or powder or anything, or at least nothing to test," Jefferson said. "They tried to contact the return address, but there was no answer."

After giving a call to the return address, Jefferson said it was determined that a Sanders supporter sent the package to the office. Inside of the box was a large envelope which contained baby powder and confetti-like paper to protect mailing envelopes inside that had information regarding Sanders. The supporter put baby powder in the envelope because the confetti-like paper smelled bad.

"Had he sent it to the U.S. mail system, he would probably be in big trouble," Jefferson said.