upon examining the box, it was found to have been poorly put together. it's a one piece item that when folded a certain way becomes a box with perforated edges on one side (where it is opened) and 3 flaps that are supposed to be glued. apparently one side was not glued properly but mailed anyway. handling of the piece from the packaging place to and at the post office caused the contents (the book)to fall out. when the handler realized the box was empty, they picked up whatever was in the immediate area thinking it was what fell out of the box. this happened to be a jewelry box (empty) and what was thought to be packing material was in fact one of those small brown foamy envelopes with a note that said return to sender. (now this envelope was all scrunched up and i wasn't about to unscrunch it with my hands to see if anything was written on it) someone was attempting to return merchandise. (i guess their item got lost too!)
so, the mail handler stuffed the box coming to me from the publisher, with someones empty merchandise and the envelope with which they were trying to return this item to.
whew! our securtiy guy called the mail room and confirmed that sometimes this happens...
so. there it is.
i understand the hysteria regarding anthrax. watching the news the night before all of this happened here, suggested that if you receive anything out of the ordinary, that you alert security. that's what i did. they didn't fly off the handle, noone here at the school knows about this except for library staff members and security.
so, everything is fine. (well as fine as it can be under the circumstances)
i'm glad we have on the ball security. helps me feel a little safer.