Toyota: Indiana plant is fourth company site in 4 states to receive suspicious packages

Suspicious items sent to Toyota sites in 4 states

INDIANAPOLIS — A suspicious package that prompted the evacuation of a southern Indiana post office Tuesday was the fourth since Friday sent to Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. headquarters and production plants in three states, a company spokesman said.

The package addressed to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana in Princeton was discovered Tuesday morning at the local post office and led to its evacuation before a bomb technician determined it was harmless, authorities said.

It bore a handwritten originating address from Nigeria, just like the other three packages, said Gibson County Chief Deputy Sheriff George Ballard. A postal inspector called it a “hoax device,” Princeton police detective Sgt. Mike Hurt said.

Company officials don’t know what may have prompted the packages to be sent, said Mike Goss, spokesman for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. in Erlanger, Ky.

“We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Goss said. “We have alerted all of the other facilities to be watchful.”

The Princeton package was a cardboard tube about 4 inches long and 1½ inches wide, and contained electronic parts, Ballard said. He said he was unaware of any note included in the package.

A Toyota employee alerted postal authorities when he found the package with the plant’s other mail Tuesday, Toyota spokeswoman Kelly Dillon said.

“This package is similar to other suspicious packages mailed to our corporate office in Erlanger, Kentucky, on Friday and our West Virginia and Texas plants on Monday. All of these packages were found to be non-threatening,” Dillon said.

The Princeton incident is being investigated by the FBI, the Indiana State Police and the postal inspector in Evansville, state police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle said. He said he could not discuss details of the investigation.

The Princeton plant assembles Highlander and Sequoia sport utility vehicles, while the San Antonio plant turns out trucks. The company’s plant in Buffalo, W.Va., produces engines and transmissions.

Toyota also has major U.S. production plants in Georgetown, Ky., and Huntsville, Ala., Dillon said.