By Tim Binnall
The mystery surrounding a curious note found in a Pennsylvania man's cereal has expanded exponentially over the past few weeks as dozens of people say that they have also discovered unsettling missives inside the packaging of various products. The truly odd phenomenon first came to light back in late December when Sugarloaf Township resident Joe Miller opened a sealed box of Lucky Charms and spotted a small piece of paper amid the cereal. The unexpected note was said to contain "a mash-up of words and references to current events and conspiracy theories." When word of the weird incident reached the public, the proverbial floodgates opened and a subsequent series of investigations determined that there is a much bigger mystery unfolding in the area.
According to the Pennsylvania TV station that first shared Miller's story, in the days that followed their report, they received a staggering "100 emails, phone calls, and private messages from viewers recalling finding a variety of similar notes in a myriad of different food and cosmetics products at almost a half dozen Pennsylvania retailers." As if the situation were not strange enough, they learned of instances wherein cryptic messages, seemingly from the same source, were discovered in a state park. "Who would take the time to take a little wire and wrap it around a tree, and put this note on a paper clip," wondered the woman who stumbled upon the missive, "it’s just scary."
Although the specific contents of the initial Lucky Charms missive that kicked off the mystery had been kept secret by the station, they as well as one local police department have since released some of the messages to illustrate their strangeness to the public. As originally described, the notes feature an indecipherable array of words and names that, one local computer expert suggested, appear to comprise some kind of code. "There's a cipher within there," Spencer Rappaport mused, "it's a piece of the puzzle." However, the haphazard distribution of the notes leaves one wondering if it is even possible to complete the message that is trying to be sent.
Setting aside the mystery surrounding what the notes mean, authorities are understandably far more concerned with how someone is slipping the pieces of paper into the packaging of various products. "What breach has occurred between the manufacturing place and the point of sale," one local police chief wondered about the puzzling phenomenon, "that they were able to get into a manufacturer's box without being detected still being sealed." With concern over the notes now bordering on hysteria, area authorities as well as the FBI are eager to get to the bottom of the mystery to bring calm to the public and put an end to the unnerving phenomenon.