Someday Abdullah Date might have what it takes to join the ranks of those important enough to be included in a government-released deck of “most wanted” cards, but he’ll have to brush up on his terror skills a bit first.

The 18-year-old Brooklyn man mailed an envelope to an East New York City police precinct that contained a pile of white powder and a mocking letter that began, “Ha, ha! You thought it was anthrax,” and offered the challenge for police to “Catch me if you can!” Apparently down with at least the laws of letter writing, Date made sure to sign his name and send his mail out with his return address clearly written on the envelope.

While the letter was laced with profanity, the white powder turned out to be wholly innocuous. Unfortunately for Date, the recipients at the 73rd Precinct aren’t ones to ignore a challenge, and so catch him they did. He’s being held without bail while awaiting his chance to shine in a New York federal court.

» Scott Saxon