Town's Residents Being Terrorized by ... Mashed Potatoes

Starchy and strange is the only way to describe what's been going on in one section of Jackson, Miss. Let Belhaven resident Michaela Lin put it into words. "As I walked out of my door my neighbor said, 'What is that on your mailbox?'" she tells WLBT. "And I said, 'Umm, it looks like a bowl of mashed potatoes.'" And Lin isn't the only local finding the smashed spuds: Other residents say they've found bowls of the stuff in their own mailboxes, on their doorsteps, on their cars, and even in their cars, leaving some laughing and some feeling "unsafe," per the Clarion Ledger.

"It's definitely one of the weirdest things I've seen since living in Jackson," resident Jordan Lewis, who found a bowl of mashed on her car, tells WJTV. Locals haven't felt the need to drag the police into matters, preferring to muse on their own about why "victims" are being targeted; speculation runs the gamut from a simple prank to someone possibly trying to poison animals. One result of this tuber puzzle is that the world is now finding out a little more about the quirks of the people who live in the historic neighborhood. "We decorate road signs, we put Christmas trees in our potholes," Lewis says. "So the [mashed potatoes aren't] surprising at all. That's why I love this neighborhood, because they do so many strange things." (This Aussie may want to move to Belhaven.)