By Clyde Noel

Town Crier Correspondent

What to watch for

Within a week, the Los Altos post office will distribute a warning to each household to be on the lookout for suspicious letters. A suspicious letter, the U.S. Postal Service advised, is likely to be hand-addressed from someone you don’t know, lopsided or lumpy in appearance and sealed with excessive tape.

Anyone who receives such a letter is advised to handle it minimally, place it in a plastic bag, wash their hands thoroughly and notify authorities.

“We receive daily communications by FAX, e-mail or telephone from the district office in San Francisco,” said Masayuki Sato, Los Altos postmaster. “The district advises us on how to handle a crisis. To this date, everything on the Peninsula has been a hoax or a false alarm. Our employees are on alert and know what to look for.”

Sato said the downtown office and the Loyola Corners post office have gloves and masks available for any concerned postal workers.

The clerks who work at over-the-counter stations are the most exposed, but no one is wearing a mask or gloves yet.

Postal customers were asked what they thought about the anthrax scare. John Cardoza said he treats mail now like he always has. “I discard the junk mail and only open mail from a source I know.”

Jerry Moison hoped that the problem will decrease the amount of junk mail he receives. “I’m hopeful that the threat is less significant than the national and TV media is suggesting.”

“I don’t think there is any political importance in our community that some one would send a letter to Los Altos. Terrorists have bigger fish to catch.” said Len McBirney, a Los Altos resident.

On Oct. 22, U.S. Postmaster General John Potter said, “The mail and our employees have become the target of terrorists.” Potter may have overstated that for Los Altos because local postal workers have not been targets. But as the first handlers of any mail, they are vulnerable for anything sent through the postal service.

Until this week, the most serious threat facing the U.S. Postal Service was economic competition from e-mail and more nimble private carriers. Born 256 years ago, when the United States was still a collection of colonies, the Postal Department, as it was then known, helped unite the nation.