Police Chief Blows His Cool When Novel Package Shows Up in Office

SAN JOSE â€”  The panicked police chief called the bomb squad to dismantle a mysterious package--and sheepishly discovered five copies of his first mystery novel sent to his office as a gift.

Chief Joseph McNamara, who has received hate mail and threats because of his calls for gun control, thought that the heavy box marked “office forms� looked suspicious.

“No one in my office had requested any forms,� he said after the incident Thursday, “and when I checked, purchasing hadn’t ordered any either. Besides, the box was too heavy for office forms.�

The sender was an attorney he had met at a mystery book convention in San Francisco.

McNamara had told him about the difficulties in the distribution of his first novel, “The First Directive.� So the attorney sent him some extra copies when he found them on sale.