Harmless white powder at Hackensack bank came off $1,000 cash in bill counting machine

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A white powder that came off $1,000 cash sent through a sorting machine at a Hackensack bank — prompting a large emergency response — proved harmless, authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Jerry DeMarco

10/07/2014 9:50 p.m.

It began when a customer asked to buy a bank check with the cash.

“When they ran it through the counting machine, the white powder came off,” a law enforcement source familiar with the incident told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.

Another employee was notifying police when the worker cleaned up the spill.

“By the time Hazmat arrived, it had already been cleaned up,” the source said.

It’s unclear whether the substance could have been cocaine or something else, but it wasn’t considered hazardous, he said.

City police and firefighters, the Bergen County Hazardous Materials Unit and Hackensack University Medical Center EMTs all responded.

PHOTO: Courtesy HACKENSACK FD

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