Right now
Stop. Don't handle it.
Set it down gently, step away, and wash your hands. The Postal Inspection Service says the odds of receiving anything truly harmful are extremely remote, which is exactly why the plan is short enough to follow without practice.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
What to look for
The signs on the envelope and the package
These are the Postal Service's own indicators, the same ones printed on the poster in every mailroom. One sign alone rarely means anything. Several together on an unexpected package is when this page applies.
How it is addressed
No return address. Restrictive markings such as Personal or Confidential on business mail. Addressed to a title only, or to the wrong title for the person. Misspelled words, badly typed or handwritten addressing, possibly mailed from a foreign country with excessive postage. Excessive postage shows up because the sender did not want a clerk weighing the package at a counter.
Source: USPS Poster 84; USPIS
How it looks and feels
Excessive tape, or sealed with tape along every edge. Rigid, bulky, lopsided, or uneven. Oily stains, discoloration, or crystallization on the wrapper. A strange odor. Protruding wires. Unknown powder or a suspicious substance on or around it. If you noticed any of these because the item is already in your hands, that is fine. Most people do. Set it down gently and go to the steps below.
Source: USPS Poster 84; USPIS
Context decides
An unexpected package from a sender you cannot place carries more weight than any single mark on the wrapper. A taped-up, lopsided box you were expecting from your aunt is a taped-up, lopsided box. The question is never one indicator; it is whether the item makes sense arriving at your door.
Source: USPIS
If one is in front of you
Four steps, in order
Stop
Do not handle it any further. Do not open it, smell it, or taste it, and do not shake it to see what it does. If it is in your hands, set it down gently on a flat surface.
Isolate it
Leave it exactly where it is and separate it from people. Move everyone out of the room, close the door behind you, and keep your distance.
Wash your hands
Soap and water, right away, and keep your hands away from your face until you have. Anyone else who touched the item washes too.
Make the calls, from a distance
Call Postal Inspectors at 1-877-876-2455 and say the word emergency. If anyone needs medical attention, or if you suspect the item is a bomb, call 911 first. For a suspected explosive device, make the calls well away from the item; cell phones and two-way radios do not belong near it.
Source: USPIS; USPS Poster 84; CISA/DHS Bomb Threat Checklist
Powder or worse
If something spills, or you suspect a device
Unknown powder or substance
Do not try to clean it up, sniff it, or brush it off your clothes. Isolate the area immediately, get everyone out, call 911, and wash your hands with soap and water. Tell the dispatcher exactly what you saw and who was near it, and stay available; responders will tell you what happens next.
Source: USPS Poster 84
If you suspect a bomb
Same answer, faster: everyone away from it, 911 from a distance, no phones or radios near the item, and nobody goes back for a second look. Our bomb threat guide covers the rest, including what to do when the threat arrives by phone instead of by mail.
Source: USPS Poster 84; CISA
At a workplace
Activate the emergency plan and notify a supervisor; that is the poster's instruction, and it exists so one calm person runs the response instead of a hallway full of opinions. If your workplace handles mail every day and has no plan for this, that is a fixable gap, and the mailroom poster is free.
Source: USPS Poster 84
The honest odds
This will almost certainly never happen to you
The Postal Inspection Service, which investigates every one of these incidents, says the likelihood of anyone receiving a harmful biological or chemical agent is extremely remote. Specially trained inspectors with screening equipment work the mail stream every day.
Knowing the four steps is like knowing where the fire extinguisher hangs. You are not expecting the fire. You are just the person in the room who does not have to improvise.
Source: U.S. Postal Inspection Service
Keep going
Go deeper on what matters next
Bomb Threat
The phoned-threat playbook: what to ask and what to write down.
Terrorism Preparedness Checklist
Before, during, and after. The full step-by-step.
Active Threats
The full guide to understanding and preparing for targeted violence.
Emergency Guides
Pick your emergency. Every guide on one page.
Sources: U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Suspicious Mail; USPS Poster 84, Suspicious Mail or Packages; CISA/DHS Bomb Threat Checklist (August 2025 edition). All safety claims verified against primary sources. Last reviewed October 25, 2026.
This guide is not professional security advice. It is a plain-language starting point, written to be read before anything happens.