Law enforcement agents are investigating a suspicious substance delivered to Oby’s restaurant Tuesday.
Starkville police officers, firefighters and a hazardous materials response team were dispatched to the Academy Road restaurant about 3 p.m. after a package containing a vial with an unknown substance inside was delivered to the business, Starkville Fire Marshal Stein McMullen said.
The substance was taken from the scene for further testing.
Restaurant owner Danya O’Bannon said Oby’s remained open Tuesday despite the afternoon’s incident. The vial was still sealed and unbroken inside the package when it was opened, she said, and the individual who shipped the small box even secured the contents with bubble wrap.
“It wasn’t busted open or spread around in there. We just don’t know what it was or where it came from,” she said. “It wasn’t in the (main area of the restaurant); it was outside. I get little packages like that all the time. For me to open something up (without checking the package for its sender), there’s nothing to that. I don’t know the address, but I know it wasn’t something we requested.”
Little else is known about the incident. Starkville Police Department declined to comment on the afternoon’s events.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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