FBI investigating Zondervan incident

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - The FBI is now investigating an incident at Zondervan Corporation that included a suspicious substance in an envelope and a written message.

A mail room employee opened a package containing a periodical around 7:30 a.m. Some of the pages were hollowed out, and in the hollowed out section was a powdery substance.

The area was isolated and only a few employees were evacuated. No one was injured.

Emergency crews rushed to the facility, 5300 Patterson  Avenue SE in Cascade Township, after the substance was discovered.

An examination revealed the substance was benign. But there was also some papers with written information on them.

Officials will not elaborate on what was written. The FBI is now involved in the investigation.

"We don't know if it's a crime yet," Kent County Undersheriff Jon Hess told 24 Hour News 8. "Obviously it's a serious situation when someone sends an unknown substance. They have some type of plan on what they're going to do, whether it's to get people upset, whether its a legitimate threat. I don't think we know that."

There are similarities to an incident at Zondervan in 2007. At that time, another package with a suspicious substance was opened, but it turned out to be an aspiring writer trying to get a manuscript read.