Dead Animals Left at Abortion Clinic Doorstep

A dead possum was found inside a box left outside an Old Town Planned Parenthood clinic Thursday morning and a suspicious letter was found at the Dirksen Federal Building downtown just two hours later.

The courthouse investigation was the fourth suspicious package incident police have responded to in about 14 hours.

Emergency personnel respnded Thursday morning to the Dirksen Federal Building, at 219 S. Dearborn St., when an envelope was found inside the courthouse. The situation was secured at 10:55 a.m. and the envelope was deemed safe.

Prior to that, a package was found at Planned Parenthood, at 1200 N. LaSalle Boulevard at 8:15 a.m., according to police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak.

The package had a written message that said, "For all the doctors for all you do for women," officials said.

A police robot flattened the box, which was found to contain a dead possum wrapped in paper.  Streets were shut down and pedestrians were kept away until everything was cleared about 10 a.m.

A package with the same message was found July 3 at 5086 N. Elston Ave., site of Family Planning Associates. A dead skunk was discovered in that package, Egan said.

The Chicago City Council has taken steps to try to ensure the safety of the doctors and patients at Planned Parenthood, along with other medical facilities from this type of unjustified harassment. Just last year they passed a “bubble zone” ordinance to protect the safety of their members.

"We have security measures in place, and obviously, we take the security precautions of our doctors very seriously, as we saw as evidenced by the murder of Dr. George Tiller a little over a year ago," said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Beth Kanter according to CBS 2 Chicago. "We are very concerned about the safety of our doctors, and make sure that they are protected."

The first suspicious package was found about 8:50 p.m. Wednesday in the 1500 block of North Wells Street. That package was not harmful, police said.

An hour later, a tubular document canister was found at a bus shelter in front of the NBC Tower. A robot was used to remove the package and it was later destroyed.