The staff in Rep. Jan Schakowsky's office in Skokie, Illinois, had already been through one scare that month.
On October 16, an envelope arrived that matched the warnings congressional offices had been getting all week. A wave of powder-filled letters was hitting lawmakers across the country, and more than 100 were believed to be moving through the mail. Schakowsky's staff recognized the signs, left it unopened, and called the authorities.
Five days later, on October 21, another one arrived.
This one held a white, granular substance and a handwritten note: "HA HA." Hazmat crews responded again.
Over the next few days, similar envelopes reached the offices of two more Chicago-area Democrats, Rep. Mike Quigley in Chicago and Rep. Brad Schneider in Lincolnshire, and the office of Sen. Tammy Duckworth. One note was a little chattier: "HAH enjoy the gift."
Each time, staff had to treat the letter as if it could kill them. Hazmat teams were called, and the FBI was brought in.
Congressional staff take white powder seriously for a reason. In 2001, letters filled with real anthrax were mailed to news outlets and to the Senate offices of Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Five people died and 17 more got sick. The Hart Senate Office Building was closed for months.
The substance in these letters turned out to be table salt.
The FBI didn't have to dig to find the sender. His name and home address were on the envelopes.
Matthew Unglesbee, 37, of Quincy, Illinois, is now charged in federal court with mailing threatening communications and conveying false information and hoaxes. The hoax charge alone carries up to five years in federal prison.
He also couldn't keep it to himself. On October 16, the same day Schakowsky's office got its first scare, someone called the FBI after overhearing a man in a restaurant talking about mailing suspicious letters to members of Congress. Agents tracked him down and interviewed him outside his home on October 25.
According to the criminal complaint, Unglesbee said the idea came to him when he heard someone in a restaurant talking about powder-filled letters sent to other lawmakers, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He told agents he picked salt because it "kind of looks like" anthrax, and that he figured recipients might call in hazmat teams because "anthrax is dangerous."
He said it was a joke. According to the complaint, he also "recognized that the recipients would not know he was joking."
When agents searched his home, they found a fifth envelope addressed to a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. He hadn't mailed it yet.
Unglesbee denies having anything to do with the larger wave of letters sent to lawmakers outside Illinois, and investigators believe his letters were copycats. He's already in the Adams County jail on separate state harassment charges.
State records list him as a registered sex offender.
The lawmakers weren't laughing. Quigley called the letters "direct threats." He said threats and intimidation have become "normalized" and that his office is "not going to let anyone intimidate us." Schakowsky said she "will not let threats stand in the way of serving the people of the 9th District." Schneider thanked law enforcement for "treating this investigation with the seriousness it deserves."
Federal prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday to keep Unglesbee behind bars until trial.