Club-Goers Quarantined in Anthrax Scare

More than 750 people were quarantined for four hours early Sunday after police received a call claiming that the deadly bacterium anthrax had been released in a popular Pomona nightclub, officials said.

The Glass House club in a Pomona mall was packed when an anonymous man telephoned Pomona police and said “a significant quantity of the biological agent had been released in the air.” But authorities said the call was believed to be an anthrax hoax, the sixth one in Southern California in two weeks.

Police, county hazardous materials teams and the FBI’s domestic terrorism task force responded to the packed dance club after the call about 11:50 p.m. Saturday, Pomona police Sgt. Paul Hitt said.

“They checked for any delivery devices,” Hitt said. “They took samples of air and checked air-conditioning filters and ducts, and determined there probably was not any release of an agent.”

Between 750 and 800 people were quarantined for four hours inside the club, which caters to teenagers and young adults. At 4 a.m. Sunday the crowd was briefed and given antibiotics and a pamphlet about anthrax. They were told to go home, take showers, seal their clothes in plastic bags and watch for flu-like symptoms, Hitt said.

Hitt said it takes two to six days for symptoms of the biotoxin to surface in victims.

Although police said they have no suspects, federal authorities said the call probably was made by a copycat of recent hoaxes. FBI spokesman John Hoos said it may have been a disgruntled employee “with an ax to grind” or someone who could not get into the club.

Hoos said that the hoaxes are treated more seriously than bomb scares and that suspects can be prosecuted under a federal statute that makes it a crime to threaten to use weapons of mass destruction.

He said the cost of sending local, county and federal agents to an anthrax scare is expensive. “Even though it turns out to be a hoax, it’s costing taxpayers a lot of money,” Hoos said.

The Los Angeles police estimated the cost of four previous hoaxes in the county at $2 million.