The Shelbyville chief of police and a former Tyson employee confirmed that threatening messages surfaced this week, leading to extra security at the plant.
“A couple days ago, they had a terrorist threat that was written on the bathroom walls that said ‘all Americans must die,’” said a woman, who said she wanted to remain anonymous to protect her relative, who works inside the plant.
She said that she didn’t see the writing herself but is aware of what’s going on from others.”
One day last week, someone set the women’s bathroom on fire, and they finally put a security guard at the bathroom door,” the woman said.
She said workers are scared.
“Some of them are afraid. They’ve been talking about it and worried about it and wondering what Tyson is going to do about it,” she said.
“We have not been asked to come down to Tyson to make any kind of official report,” said Chief Austin Swing.
But Swing said the department has been asked to provide an armed, off-duty officer to patrol inside the plant through the holidays. Tyson didn’t explain the reason why.
“I guess I’m assuming now, but he’s just there for some type of security reason or to maybe to put people at ease who work there,” said Swing.
He said he believes Tyson has already removed the graffiti and is conducting its own investigation into who’s responsible.
“They’ve doubled up the guards in the guard shack outside,” the anonymous woman said.Some at the plant are concerned.
“They’ve complained for years, as to why these people are being hired in our food department when we are worried about our safety as Americans, you know, and that’s something we all need to think about,” she said.
Tyson said in a statement “the security of our facilities is important to our company.”
The FBI did not returned Channel 4’s request of whether it’s involved.