Suspicious Package or Mail

If you see or receive an unexpected letter or package that looks suspicious:

• Call 911 from campus phone (301-405-3333 from a cellular phone)
• Call your service desk
• Do not touch the item or disturb it in any way; do not open, smell or taste it
• If you inadvertently pick up the item and first become suspicious at that point, carefully set the item down, ideally in an isolated location
• Call University Police at 911 (or 301-405-3333 from a cellular phone)
• Stay away from the item, and keep others away from it

When the University of Maryland Police dispatcher answers your call to 911:

• Identify your specific location
• Describe the letter or package and explain why it looks suspicious to you
• Stay on the phone until the dispatcher tells you it’s okay to hang up
• Move away from the item, wait there, and identify yourself to Police when officers arrive

Signs of a potentially suspicious letter or package:

• No return address, restrictive marking such as “Personal” or “Special Delivery”
• Excessive postage, tape or string; possibly mailed from another country
• Misspelled words, badly typed or written, name doesn’t match address
• Package or letter is lopsided or uneven, wire protrudes from it
• Package or letter has strange smell or has oily stains, discoloration or crystallization

All reports of suspicious mail and packages are taken very seriously and are investigated thoroughly.

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