It is not unusual for an insurance company to send out flyers or letters to businesses and law offices. This is done in the hopes of generating some new customers. It is also not unusual for an insurance company to come up with something eye catching in order to stand out in the minds of customers. However, when the advertizement causes a building to be evacuated, then things have gone horribly wrong.
An insurance company in Iowa, (who is remaining anonymous), sent out a letter to a law office in Iowa City. Enclosed within the letter was something special, perhaps to make the insurance company a little bit more memorable to the people who worked in the law office. The insurance company put a breath mint into the envelope. It most likely was one that comes in a roll of Lifesavers breath mints, (or perhaps a knock off brand that would look very similar to the popular candy).
None of the stories I’ve read about this state why, exactly, the unnamed insurance company decided to send out breath mints with their literature. If I had to guess, I would think the insurance company was playing on the name of the candy. Here is a Lifesaver, from your insurance company. One could assume that the people who received the letters would associate that insurance company with safety and security. It also gives the person who gets the letter a nice breath mint that they can use after lunch. Overall, these are good intentions.
It seems that these good intentions were destroyed, (unintentionally), by the United States Postal Service. All the letters that are sent by mail go through some sorting equipment at the post office. They need to be stamped, and scanned, sorted, and stacked. This process ended up crushing the life saver breath mint.
When someone at the law office opened the letter from the insurance company, he or she noticed a suspicious, white, unidentified, powder inside the envelope. The Lifesaver was supposed to make people associate the insurance company with security, (I am assuming). Instead, the suspicious white powder likely made people think of anthrax, and a potential terrorist threat. Not quite what the insurance company was going for, one would think.
Someone called the police, who arrived with the county ambulance service, and promptly evacuated the entire building. In addition to the law office that received the letter, there were several other law and medical offices, and a Raygun T-shirt shop. All of the people, in all of these offices and shops, were evacuated, and then evaluated.
Fortunately, none of them had been harmed by the mysterious white substance. A United States Postal Inspection Service inspector tested the white power, and was able to determine it to be “consistent with a mint candy”, like a Lifesaver. The evacuation of the building could have been avoided if only the insurance company realized what the postal equipment would do to a Lifesaver.
Image by Mark Ordonez on Flickr