Imagine it - you’ve got a special package that arrived in the mail! It’s attractively wrapped, and seems to contain something valuable. Perhaps, an expensive bottle of perfume? Tickets to a Caribbean cruise? Or the latest gadget you’ve been saving up for? Instinctively, you become excited to unwrap the package, leaving no room for any suspicion or fear, as the surprise just fills you with joy. In almost all instances, such would be the scenario, right? However, five New York City residents had the opposite experience. Between 1982 and 1996, each of them received an unexpected, nicely wrapped package in the mail; but the surprise brought them shock, trauma and injuries, and one even met her untimely death, because what they opened turned out to be an explosive device. The attacks became known as the malevolent work of the “Zip Gun Bomber.”

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