A Dickinson Catholic Schools employee opened a package containing more than a pound of marijuana Tuesday that was delivered to Trinity High School, according to the Dickinson Police Department.
"I would have never dreamt something like that would have happened," Superintendent Kelly Koppinger said. "To me, I'm surprised that they would target a school. We have a number of employees that would be apt to handle that package."
The package was opened in the school's business office shortly after it was delivered, Koppinger and Principal Carter Fong said.
"We thought that it was intended for us and so we opened the package," Fong said, adding the school was not the intended recipient.
DPD Capt. Joe Cianni said it was "dropped off by the postman." THS employees called police and an officer retrieved it, he added.
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Officials would not say whether there was a return address on the package or who it was addressed to.
Cianni said it's unclear if it can be traced back to its sender, adding the investigation has been turned over to the Southwest Narcotics Task Force.
"If there's no return address, it would be very difficult unless they sent it registered mail," he said. "You're not required to put a return address on any packages you send."
Cianni said the package winding up in a school is unusual, but drugs turning up in the mail is not unheard of.
"In the past, where this type of thing has happened, people send it to an address that's not their own and they try to time the delivery so they're there and pick it up from that address before the actual addressee gets his mail," he said. "That's been a common thing for shipping drugs in the mail ... I'm not saying that's what happened here. This was probably just a bad address that they put on there."
A woman who answered a call to the United States Postal Service and identified herself only as Sue said she did not know how often drugs are found in mail.
"I've never heard of anything like that happening before," she said.
Attempts to reach the SWNTF for comment were unsuccessful.
