The rash of pipe bombs sent to high-profile figures has courier services in western Connecticut rethinking security.

Some courier services do not have any specific screening equipment for packages that come in, so it comes down to knowing who is sending something.

At MCS Same-Day Delivery in Bridgeport, they ask questions and request a photo ID if they do not know a shipper. They are also trained by the TSA in security protocol.

"Basically, what we're trained to look out for is obvious things like wires, leaks, odd smells, inconsistencies in packages," says Brian Marcucio of MCS.

Postal workers are trained to spot suspicious packages. If they find one, the government has regional dangerous mail investigation teams that can rapidly respond.

Ken Gray, a former FBI counterterrorism agent and University of New Haven professor, says every package leaves a long footprint.

"In the anthrax investigation, one of the things we were able to do was actually track down exactly what mailbox those envelopes were placed into originally," says Gray.

Places like MCS have strict requirements for sending packages by air, but Marcucio says policing deliveries by van could be much tougher.

"I don't know what else you could possibly do, unless you put thousands of dollars of screening equipment on every vehicle," says Marcucio. "Nobody could afford that."