Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker reports the arrest last week of a Nebraska man on charges associated with the delivery of suspicious mail to the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office in Council Bluffs. An arrest warrant for five counts of Harassment was issued on September 11th, for the arrest of Frank Donald Hytrek, of Omaha. Hytrek was subsequently arrested and booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail. On September 6th, Hytrek admitted during an interview with investigators, to sending the packages to the Sheriff’s Office and to other various locations in the Metro Area. Harassment 3rd is a Simple Misdemeanor in the State of Iowa.

Originally Investigators were looking into charging Hytrek with Terrorism; however the facts of the crime did not meet the definition of Terrorism under Iowa Law. The suspicious envelopes were received on May 30th, June 3rd, June 4th, June 19th, and July 10th. The suspicious nature of the envelopes varies from containing unknown powders to unknown liquids. Initial forensic testing indicated that the substances were non-toxic. Further testing has isolated that the substances range from Flour to Muriatic Acid.

The incidents were investigated by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division.