Suspicious white powder closes part of Brand Blvd.

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE — A stretch of Brand Boulevard was closed for more than two hours Wednesday afternoon as a hazardous materials team investigated a suspicious white powder found in an envelope at the Church of Scientology.

The powder, which turned out to be a mixture of corn starch and dry cereal, was discovered at about 1 p.m. when an employee was opening the mail, Glendale Fire Capt. Tom Propst said.

The employee immediately called police, who evacuated the building and sealed off the sidewalk and diverted traffic on Brand between Wilson and California avenues to make way for the hazard materials team.

Early indications that the substance contained properties of protein caused some concern — because protein is not an element in common household products — but further tests proved the powder was innocuous, Propst said.

The incident appeared to be a hoax, possibly tied in with at least two other incidents in Los Angeles County, police said.

Two other powder-laced envelopes were delivered on Wednesday to Scientology offices in Santa Monica and Van Nuys, respectively. Both substances tested positive for the same mixture of starch and cereal, Propst said.

Glendale police will work with police in Santa Monica and Los Angeles to determine whether the incidents were connected and who was behind the hoax, Glendale Police Officer John Balian said.

“We won’t know if they’re all related until we start getting together what the investigation finds from the concerned agencies, to see if there’s a relationship,” Balian said. “It looks that way. But we’re not 100% certain until we continue the investigations.”

A letter was included in the envelope, but police did not release the content

Church of Scientology officials could not be reached for comment.

Federal laws prohibit such hoaxes, Balian added.

Though this is the second suspicious powder that has surfaced during the past two weeks — the first was found in the back lot of the Glendale Police station and tested positive for Gold Bond medicated powder — biological agent hoaxes are not common in Glendale, Propst said.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, however, the Fire Department received about a dozen calls per day, he added.