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In February 1998, Harris boasted to an informant that he had enough military-grade anthrax to wipe out all of Las Vegas. Eight bags marked biological had been found in the back of a car he and his accomplice were driving.17 Several days later, federal authorities learned that the anthrax Harris had brought to Las Vegas was a vaccine strain not harmful to human health. Nevertheless, the incident frightened many people and sparked a proliferation of anthrax hoaxes and threats in the second half of 1998 continuing into 1999 by groups including Identity Christians and other antigovernment groups, extortionists, anti- abortion activists, and presumed prochoice groups. In many cases, the perpetrator s motives were unknown, but some incidents appear to have been student pranks, demon- strating the extent to which the threat of anthrax has entered U.S. consciousness