By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                The person who sent a suspicious package to Otter Creek Town Hall on April 10 this year won’t ever be caught and the materials found inside will never again see the light of day.

            When the Levy County Sheriff’s Office opened the package at the headquarters of the agency in Bronson, they found a calculator inside and dismissed the whole incident as nothing of importance.

            “The package and the calculator were discarded. The package contained nothing of a suspicious nature,” a sheriff’s incident report said.

            The anonymous package was delivered by UPS addressed to “Mary Mary Math is Scary,” a reference to Town Clerk Mary Degroot who has since retired due to health issues. She was under a great deal of stress as a result of harassment directed at her in Town Hall, associates close to her indicated.

            The sheriff’s report described how the package was opened at the sheriff’s office by Detective Cpl. C.J. Perryman and was found to contain nothing suspicious.

            Degroot wasn’t being paranoid. She had ample reason to believe the package might be dangerous and called the sheriff’s office.

            She told deputies she had stopped answering the town phone because of “all the harassment.” She said had received hate mail at Town Hall. Degroot was alarmed because the package was addressed to “Mary Mary Math is Scary.”

            Lt. Scott Tummond was contacted by Spotlight and asked if sending a suspicious package to a public building like Otter Creek Town Hall was a crime in itself, even if the contents were harmless. He said he didn’t know.

            Tummond said the sheriff’s office can’t go back and investigate the case any further because the evidence was thrown out after the contents were found to be harmless.

            “What happened to the calculator?”

            “That was destroyed too. That was in the report,” Tummond said.

             The perpetrator will remain forever anonymous and safe from investigation.

            In the final analysis, UPS delivered an anonymous package to Otter Creek Town Hall addressed to Mary Mary Math is Scary, with no return address or name listed.

            It didn’t blow up.

            It was just another day in Otter Creek politics.

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Enterprise Reporting July 28, 2023; Posted July 28, 2023